
G^iightW 

COPyRIGKT DEPOSIT. 



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ALSOP'S 
MARYLAND 



Of this edition, two hundred 
and fifty copies have been 
printed, and the type distrib- 
uted. This is 

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GEORGE ALSOP, froir.€Ke. Por- 
trait in t9)e OriglrvaXEditioiv o; 



1666. 



A CHARACTER OF -^ 

THE PROVINCE OF MARYLAND 

^ BY GEORGE ALSOP ^ 

Reprinted from the original edition of 1666 



With Introduction and Notes hy 

NEWTON D. ME RENE SS, Ph.D. 

Acting Professor of History and Economics in the College of 

Charleston, Author of ''Maryland as a 

Proprietary Province.** 




CLEVELAND 

The Burrows Brothers Company 

1902 





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Copyright, 1902 

BY 

The Bukkuws Brothers Company 



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INTRODUCTION 



Of the few descriptions of Maryland written in 
the seventeenth century, this is decidedly the most 
pretentious. Its primeval savor, the peculiarity 
of its style, and its unique account of the mighty 
Susquehannas, together with its portrayal of the 
early white settlers of that province as a well- 
disposed people living under a well-ordered 
government in the midst of Nature's bountiful 
gifts, make it an enduring attraction to the curious 
reader; and when read in connection with other 
literature on the subject it is not without its value 
to the most serious student of our early history. 

Only one month after the arrival of the colo- 
nists at St. Marys, in the year 1634, Father Andrew 
White, a Jesuit priest, wrote in Latin, and prob- 
ably also in English, an account of the voyage, of 
the planting of the colony, and of what he had 
seen in the province. The next year, for the pur- 
pose of making this new possession attractive to 
all who could be persuaded to embark their 
fortunes in the New World, Lord Baltimore 
caused to be published in London a description 
probably prepared from Father White's account 

— 5 — 



INTRODUCTION 

and from letters written by Governor Calvert and 
others. This was followed the next year by the 
publication in the same city of a more extended 
description of the riches of the province and with 
such additional information and directions as was 
thought might be of service to adventurers going 
thither to plant. 

For the next twenty -five years the greatest need 
of the province was not so much glowing descrip- 
tions to attract colonists as it was prudence and 
skill in managing those already within its borders. 
For within that interval Claiborne and his men 
would submit only after being compelled to yield 
to superior force; the Jesuit priests made exor- 
bitant claims for the canon law; Claiborne and 
Ingle, with their followers, kept the province in a 
state of insurrection for nearly two years; the 
Puritan commissioners seized the government and 
retained possession of it for four years; Fendall 
and his followers made an attempt to establish a 
commonwealth. From the rebel and the grumbler 
there went to England during these troublous 
times unfavorable accounts of the lord proprietor's 
government and tales of woe about the harsh 
treatment to which those were subjected who had 
gone there as indented servants. Hammond 
found occasion in the year 1656 to answer these 
charges in his Lmh and Rachel. 

But upon the return of stability to the home 

— 6 — 



INTRODUCTION 

government, with the Restoration of 1660, that 
which had been the chief cause of the disturbances 
in Maryland was removed, and the conditions 
seemed favorable for a new era of development. 
The population had up to this time increased to 
perhaps not more than six thousand, and it had 
become more and more exclusively engaged in the 
culture of tobacco. But now the lord proprietor 
sent out his son as governor, and both proprietor 
and governor were eager to attract more laborers, 
to encourage the growing of grain as well as the 
raising of stock, and to further the development 
of the resources of the province in every other 
possible way. To promote these ends it seems 
highly probable that Alsop was encouraged by the 
proprietor, together with such merchant adven- 
turers as were interested in that part of the 
carrying trade, to write the description which we 
have in this little volume. 

Our knowledge of this author is chiefly derived 
from what he has here written. He, the elder of 
two brothers, was born of obscure parentage in 
England in the year 1638. His childhood was 
therefore passed while his country was in the 
throes of a great civil war. In his youth he 
acquired a superficial book learning and a fondness 
for making verses. When not more than eighteen 
years of age he began to serve an apprenticeship to 
some trade in London, at which post he remained 



INTRODUCTION 

for two years. At the age of twenty, in September, 
1658, he embarked at Gravesend for Maryland 
where he landed, as he says, after a five months' 
dangerous passage. There, in Baltimore County, 
he worked for four years for Mr. Thomas Stockett 
as an indented servant. He became dangerously 
ill soon after the expiration of this term of servi- 
tude. But he sufficiently recovered to return to 
England and there complete the writing of his 
description, "the major part of which," he tells 
us, ' ' was written in the intermitting time of his 
sickness." This was published in 1666 when he 
was only twenty -eight years of age. Of his 
subsequent life nothing is known. 

He was an ardent Royalist, bitter in his con- 
tempt of Cromwell and the Puritans, adhering 
from his religious nature to the theory of the 
divine right of kings, showing "an obedient 
respect and reverence" for his parents, and 
regarding the relation of master and servant as 
natural and necessary as that of king and subject. 
At the same time his little learning made him 
verbose, bombastic, given to ridiculous extrava- 
gance in style — even for his time — rather than 
refined, cultured, accurate; and his acquaintance 
with the disreputable places in London, together 
with the low moral standard of the period of the 
Restoration, made him vulgar rather than Puri- 
tanical in his tastes. He admitted that he might 

_8 — 



INTRODUCTION 

be wild and confused and thought the world "not 
very much out of the same trim." 

In his letters written just before sailing, the 
only reason he gave for going to Maryland was 
that the world being in a heap of troubles and 
confusion he thought best to go out of it; and 
shortly after his arrival there he wrote that, had 
he known his yoke would be so easy as it then 
promised to be, he should have come much sooner 
rather than to have dwelt under the pressure 
of a rebellious and traitorous government as long 
as he had. 

If these letters are genuine, he should be given 
some credit for the fact that what he wrote to his 
relatives and friends as his earlier impressions of 
the province are scarcely less in praise of it than 
what he wrote later lor seemingly mercenary ends 
and advertising purposes. In one addressed to 
his father, for example, he tells of the wonder- 
fully good living, contentment, and loyalty of the 
people, of the loving demeanor of the lord pro- 
prietor and the governor, of how the servants 
lived more like freemen than most mechanic 
apprentices in London and wanted for nothing 
that was necessary or convenient, of the variety 
of delightful woods, pleasant groves, lovely 
springs, spacious navigable rivers, the healthful - 
ness of the climate, and the great numbers of deer 
and swine. 

— 9 — 



INTRODUCTION 

The mau whom he served, in Maryland, the 
kind of labor he seems to have performed for him, 
the place where they lived, and the particular 
time at which he was there, must have contrib- 
uted much to his favorable impressions, to his 
opportunities for seeing the country as Nature 
made it, and especially to his knowledge of the 
Susquehanna Indians. This master, Mr. Thomas 
Stockett, was next to the eldest of four brothers 
who came to Maryland in the spring or summer 
of 1658 and settled in Baltimore County on what 
was then practically the border between the 
whites and the Indians. Each and all of these 
brothers — Lewis, Thomas, Francis, and Henry — 
were soon intrusted with the discharge of impor- 
tant public duties. Lewis was for a few years 
colonel and commander-in-chief of all the forces in 
the North and on the Isle of Kent. Francis was 
chosen a burgess of his county within less than a 
year after his arrival in the province. As a mem- 
ber of the assembly during the Fendall rebellion 
he held out for the lord proprietor until overcome 
by fear, and when that rebellion had been put 
down he asked for pardon. He was also appointed 
chirurgeon of a company sent to Susquehanna 
Fort to aid the Susquehanna Indians. Henry 
was a justice of the quorum in the court of his 
county. 

But Thomas, in whom we are here more espe- 

— lO — 



TNTRODUCTION 

cially interested, was the greatest public servant 
of them all. He was a burgess of Baltimore 
County and a justice of the quorum in the court 
of the same county from 1661 to 1664. In 1668 he 
served on a committee of the lower house of 
assembly to consider Indian affairs. The year 
following he was named by that house as a fit 
man to treat with the Susquehanna Indians. One 
of the teiTQS of a treaty with those Indians 
required that none of them should come farther 
among the English plantations than where Cap- 
tain Thomas Stockett or Jacob Clauson lived 
without first procuring a pass from one of those 
gentlemen. There is no trace of the other three 
brothers in Maryland after the year 1666 and 
according to tradition they moved into Anne 
Arundel County about that year and a little later 
returned to England. But Thomas, after moving 
with his brothers into Anne Arundel County, 
served there as sheriff, and a part of the time as 
deputy surveyor-general of the province, until his 
death in April, 1671. If we may judge from the 
expressions in his will he was a very pious man. 
Be that as it may, he left one son, Thomas, and 
from his marriage with Mary Sprigg, of a promi- 
nent Maryland family, and a subsequent marriage 
with Damarris Welch, the Stocketts of Maryland, 
Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New York, and New 
Jersey are descended. 

— 1 1 — 



INTRODUCTION 

In the following pages Alsop makes only favor- 
able mention of the treatment he received on the 
Stockett estate ; leads one to think that he labored 
there as an artisan, or as an assistant in trade 
with the Indians, or both; tells us that at one 
time his master had in his house "four score 
venisons besides plenty of other provisions to 
serve his family nine months; " and after serving 
him four years, says he somewhat wished he had 
yet another four to serve. It seems highly prob- 
able, therefore, that our author, while an indented 
servant in Maryland, fared far better than those 
serving less bountiful and less humane masters, 
living in what were more exclusively the tobacco 
districts, and experiencing the drudgery of grow- 
ing that plant and preparing it for the market. 

Again, up to the time of Alsop' s arrival in the 
province the culture of tobacco was still quite 
profitable, and when he returned to England the 
planters of Maryland had had only their first 
experience of the hardships resulting from a fall 
in the price of that commodity — about threepence 
per pound in the year 1649, but a drug on the 
market by the time this book was published in 
1666. Furthermore, the easy suppression of the 
Fendall rebellion about a year after he came was 
followed by a few years in which there was a large 
measure of settled and submissive feeling toward 
the government. But serious disagreement 

— 12 — 



INTRODUCTTON 

between the two house>s of assembly arose in the 
year 1666 over the tobacco question, the governor 
saw fit to allow three years to pass before calling 
another session of that body, and then the lower 
house came forward with its grievances. 

Some of the conditions described in this book 
are consequently quite in contrast with the real 
conditions for the year in which it was published. 
Some of them are also far more flattering than 
those described in the account given by Bankers 
and Sluyters — two Labadist travelers — thirteen 
years later, where we are told that servants poorly 
fed and poorly housed, after wearing themselves 
down the whole day by working in tobacco, had 
yet to grind and pound the grain, usually maize, 
for their godless and crafty masters as well as for 
themselves. But these gentlemen, like Alsop, 
spoke of the fertility of the soil, the goodness of 
the timber, and the large quantities of fish; were 
greatly impressed with the vast numbers of water 
fowl, and said that with the proper application to 
the growing of other products than tobacco the 
inhabitants of Maryland might have everything 
for the support of life in abundance. 

The original of this little publication is a small 
volume of 140 pages, the printed matter on each 
full one being only 2f x 4| inches. There are only 
a few of these now in this country. In the Lenox 

— 13 — 



INTRODUCTION 

Library, New York, are the Lenox copy and the 
Bancroft copy. The latter has long been imper- 
fect in text and deficient in both portrait and 
map. The former had a few imperfect pages and 
was deficient in portrait ; but the imperfect pages 
have been replaced by good ones from the Ban- 
croft copy and a portrait for it has been taken 
from a copy of Go wans' s reprint which is a photo- 
lithograph of the original ; a second portrait, less 
like the original, has also been added. Of three 
other quite perfect copies known to be in this 
country, one is in the John Carter Brown Library, 
one was once in the collection of Henry C. Murphy, 
and one in that of Samuel L. M. Barlow. 

A reprint from the original, edited by John 
Gilmary Shea, was published by William Gowans 
in New York in 1869 ; and eleven years later this 
reprint was reissued in Baltimore by The Maryland 
Historical Society as Fund Publication, No. 15. 

Newton I). Mereness. 



14 — 



ALSOP'S MARYLAND 

LONDON : PETER DRING 
1666 



Title-page, portrait (frontispiece), and map re- 
printed from a copy of the original edition in 
the John Carter Brown Library, Provi- 
dence, R. I. Text reprinted from the 
"Lenox copy," in the Lenox 
Library, New York City. 




i-i^Jj^u 



I CHARACTER I 

^ Of tbe PROVINCE of 

IMARYLAND. 

Wherein is Defcribed in foui; diftind 
Parti, (Viz,^) 
.-I. The ScitHatm,and plenty of the Pmir.ce, 
^^ll.T he larrsy Cufioms, and natural Dme^t- 
S nor of the Inhabitant, ^ »- 

J|nL The warft and hfi Vfage of a iViary- 
2 Land 5«'V4Wf, o/>^«^<i i» v"*- . 

S IV. Ti[j^ Trafyucyand ysndabU Commodittes 
iJ o/rib^ Countrej, 
m ALSO 

Sa fmall Tf^d/Z/e on the vvikic and 
^ naked INDI A^iS^ot suf^iuehanokef) 
•^ o^Mary-Landy their Cuftomf,M*n- 
^ ners, Abfurdicies, & Religion. 
i TogcaierwithaColleaionof Hifto. 
«| rical L E T T t K5. 

^ BvG£ai?C7^ ALSO p. 
il.»J»», Printed by T. 7. (<^f"''^''"^- 



P 



tfi 



To the Right Honorable 

CcBcilius Lord Baltemore, 

Absolute Lord and Proprietary of the Provinces of 

Mary -Land and Avalon in America * 

My Lord, 

I Have adventured on your Lordships acceptance 
by guess ; if presumption has led me into an 
Error that deserves correction, I heartily beg 
Indempnity, and resolve to repent soundly for it, 
and do so no more. What 1 present I know to be 
true, Experientia docet; It being an infallible 
Maxim, That there is no Globe like the occular and 
experimental vieiv of a Coiuitrey. And had not Fate 
by a necessary imployment, confin'd me within 
the narrow walks of a four years Servitude, and 
by degrees led me through the most intricate and 
dubious paths of this Countrey, by a commanding 
and undeniable Enjoynment, I could not, nor 
should I ever have undertaken to have written a 
line of this nature. 

* George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, was at one time a chief 
secretary of state under James I. and from that monarch received, 
in the year 1623, a grant of the province of Avalon, the southeastern 
peninsula of Newfoundland. Finding the soil and the climate of 
Avalon unsuitable for the planting of a colony, he visited Virginia 
in the year 1629 and upon his return to England applied for a new 
grant, with the result that he was about to secure that of Maryland 
when death overtook him in April, 1632. After a delay of only two 
months it was issued to his eldest son, Cecilius, who thereupon 
became the lord proprietor of both Maryland and Avalon and as such 
continued until his death in 1675. 

— 19 — 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

If" I have wrote or composed any thing that's 
wilde and confused, it is because I am so my self, 
and the world, as far as I can perceive, is not 
much out of the same trim ; therefore I resolve, if 
I am brought to the Bar of Common Law for any 
thing I have done here, to plead Non compos mentis, 
to save my Bacon. 

There is an old Saying in English, He must rise 
betimes that ivould please every one. And I am afraid 
I have lain so long a bed, that I think I shall 
please no body ; if it must be so, I cannot help it. 
But as Feltham * in his Resolves says, In things that 
must he, 'tis good to be resolute ; And therefore what 
Destiny has ordained, I am resolved to wink, and 
stand to it. So leaving your Honour to more 
serious meditations, I subscribe my self. 
My Lord, 

Your Lordship most 

Humble Servant, 

George Alsop. 

*Owen Felltham (or Feltham), when a youth of eighteen, wrote 
a small volume of essays entitled. Resolves, Divine, Moral and 
Political. They were extremely popular during the seventeenth 
century. The first edition, published in 1628, was followed by a 
second in the same year, nine more before the year 1700, and several 
since. An edition, edited by Alexander Young, appeared in this 
country in 1S32. 



20 



To all the Merchant Adventurers for MARY- 
LAND, together with those Commanders of 
Ships that saile into that Province. 

Sirs, 

YOTJ are both Adventurers, the one of Estate, the 
other of Life : I could tell you I am an Adven- 
turer too, if I durst presume to come into your Company. 
I have ventured to coins abroad in Print, and if I 
should be laughed at for my yood meanincj, it ivould so 
break the credit of my Understanding, that I should 
never dare to sheiv my face upon the Exchange of 
{conceited) Wits again. 

This dish of Discourse was intended for you at first, 
but it was manners to let my Lord have the first cut, 
the Pye being his oivn. I beseech you accept of the 
matter as 'tis drest, only to stay your stomachs, and 
I'le promise you the next shall be better done. 'Tis all 
as I can serve you in at present, and it may be ques- 
tionable ivhether I have served you in this or no. Here 
I present you with A Character of Mary-Land, it 
may be you will say 'tis tveakly done, if you do 1 cannot 
help it, 'tis as well as I could do it, considering the 
several Obstacles that like blocks were throum in my 
way to hinder my proceeding : The major part thereof 
was written in the intermitting time of my sickness, there- 
fore I hope the ajfiicting weakness of my Microcosm 
may plead a just excuse for some imperfections of my 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

ven. I protest what I have ivrit is from an experimen- 
tal knowledge of the Country^ and not from any 
imaginary supposition. If I am blamed for what I 
have done too much, it is the first, and I will irrevo- 
cably promise it shall be the last. There's a Maxim 
upon Tryals at Assizes, That if a thief be taken 
upon the first fault, if it be not to hainous, they only 
burn him in the hand and let him go:* So I desire 
you to do by me, if you find any thing that bears a 
criminal absurdity in it, only burn me for my first 
fact and let me go. But I am affraid I have kept you 
too long in the Entry, 1 shall desire you therefore to 
come in and sit dotvn. 

G. Alsop. 

* Burning in the hand was not so much a punishment as it was a 
mark on those who, found guilty of felony, pleaded the benefit of 
clergy, which they were allowed to do but once. 



22 — 



PREFACE 



READER. 

THE Reason why I appear in this place is, lest 
the general Reader should conclude I have 
nothing to say for my self; and truly he's in the 
right on't, for 1 have but little to say (for my self) 
at this time : For I have had so large a Journey, 
and so heavy a Burden to bring Mary -Land into 
England, that I am almost out of breath: I'le 
promise you after I am come to my self, you shall 
hear more of me. Good Reader, because you see 
me make a brief Apologetical excuse for my self, 
don't judge me; for I am so self -conceited of my 
own merits, that I almost think I want none. De 
Lege non judicandiim ex sola linea, saith the Civil- 
ian ; We must not pass judgement upon a Law by 
one line : And because we see but a small Bush at 
a Tavern door, conclude there is no Canary. For 
as in our vulgar Resolves 'tis said, A good face 
needs no Band, and an ill one deserves none: So the 
French Proverb sayes, Bon Vien it n'a faut point 
de Ensigne, Good Wine needs no Bush. I sup- 
pose by this time some of my speculative observers 
have judged me vainglorious; but if they did but 
rightly consider me, they would not be so cen- 

— 23 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

sorious. For I dwell so far from Neighbors, that 
if I do not praise my self, no body else will : And 
since I am left alone, I am resolved to summon 
the Mar/na Charfa of Fowles to the Bar for my 
excuse, and by their irrevocable Statutes plead 
my discharge. For its an ill Bird will befouls her 
own Nest: Besides, I have a thousand Billings-gate * 
Collegians that will give in their testimony. That 
theif never knew a Fish-iroinan rry stinking Fish. 
Thus leaving the Nostrils of the Citizens Wives to 
demonstrate what they please as to that, and thee 
(Good Reader) to say what thou wilt, I bid thee 
Farewel. 

Geo. Alsop. 

* Billingsgate, a little below London bridge, is the great fish mar- 
ket of that city. The language spoken there, especially by women, 
has made the word a synonym of vulgar and foul expressions. 



24 



AUTHOR 



BOOK. 

WHen first Apollo got my brain with Childe, 
He made large promise never to beguile, 
But like an bonest Father, he would keep 
Whatever Issue from my Brain did creep : 
With that I gave consent, and up he threw 
Me on a Bench, and strangely he did do ; 
Then every week he daily came to see 
How his new Physick still did work with me. 
And when he did perceive he'd don the feat. 
Like an unworthy man he made retreat, 
Left me in desolation, and where none 
Compassionated when they heard me groan. 
What could he judge the Parish then would think, 
To see me fair, his Brat as black as Ink? 
If they had eyes, they' d swear I were no Nun, 
But got with Child by some black Africl- Son, 
And so condemn me for my Fornication, 
To beat them Hemp to stifle half the Nation. 
Well, since 'tis so, I'le alter this base Fate, 
And lay his Bastard at some Noble's Gate; 
Withdraw my self from Beadles, and from such. 
Who would give twelve pence I were in their clutch : 

— 25 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 



Then, who can tell? this Child which I do hide, 

May be in time a Small-beer Col'nel Pride* 

But while I talk, my business it is dumb, 

I must lay double-clothes unto thy Bum, 

Then lap thee warm, and to the world commit 

The Bastard Oft-spring of a New-bom wit. 

Farewel, poor Brat, thou in a monstrous World, 

In swadling bands, thus up and down art hurl'd; 

There to receive what Destiny doth contrive, 

Either to perish, or be sav'd alive. 

Good Fate protect thee from a Criticks power. 

For If he comes, thou'rt gon in half an hour, 

Stifl'd and blasted, 'tis their usual way, 

To make that Night, which is as bright as Day. 

For if they once but wring, and skrew their mouth, 

Cock up their Hats, and set the point Du- South, 

Armes all a kimbo, and with belly strut, 

As if they had Parnassus in their gut: 

These are the Symtomes of the murthering fall 

Of my poor Infant, and his burial. 

Say he should miss thee, and some ign'rant Asse 

Should find thee out, as he along doth pass. 

It were all one, he'd look into thy Tayle, 

To see if thou wert Feminine or Male ; 

* During the quarrel between the army and parliament, Colonel 
Pride, for whom this sarcasm was intended — acting under the direc- 
tion of a council of officers and with the assistance of a regiment of 
foot — excluded from the house of commons one hundred or more 
members who favored the restoration of Charles as king. This has 
since been known as " Pride's purge." 

— 26 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

When he'd half starv'd thee, for to satisfie 

His peeping Ign' ranee, he'd then let thee lie; 

And vow by's wit he ne're could understand, 

The Heathen dresses of another Land : 

Well, 'tis no matter, wherever such as he 

Knows one grain, more than his simplicity. 

Now, how the pulses of my Senses beat, 

To think the rigid Fortune thou wilt meet ; 

Asses and captious Fools, not six in ten 

Of thy Spectators will be real men. 

To Umpire up the badness of the Cause, 

And screen my weakness from the rav' nous Laws, 

Of those that will undoubted sit to see 

How they might blast this new-born Infancy : 

If they should burn him, they'd conclude hereafter, 

'Twere too good death for him to dye a Martyr; 

And if they let him live, they think it will 

Be but a means for to encourage ill, 

And bring in time some strange AntipoO'ans, 

A thousand Leagues beyond PhUippians, 

To storm our Wits ; therefore he must not rest. 

But shall be hang'd, for all he has been prest: 

Thus they conclude. — My Genius comforts give, 

In Resurrection he will surely live. 



To my Friend Mr. George Alsop, on his Character 
of MARY-LAND. 

WHo such odd nookes of Earths great mass describe, 
Frove fheir descent from old Columbus tribe: 
Some Boding augur did his Name devise, 
Thy Genius too cast in th' same mould and size ; 
His Name predicted he would be a Rover, 
And hidden places of this Orb discover ; 
He made relation of that World in gross, 
Thou the particulars retail' st to us : 
Btj this first Peng of thy fancy we 
Discover ivhat thy greater Coines will be ; 
This Embryo thus well polisht doth presage, 
The manly Atchievemerds of its future age. 
Auspicious ivinds blow gently on this spark, 
Untill its flames discover iv hat's yet dark ; 
Mean while this short Abridgement we embrace. 
Expecting that thy busie Soul will trace 
Some Mines at last which may enrich the World, 
And all that poverty may be in oblivion hurl'd. 
Zoilus is dumb, for thou the mark hast hit. 
By interlacing History tvith Wit : 
Thou hast described its superficial Treasure, 
Anato7niz'd its bowels at thy leasure ; 
That MARY-LAND to thee may duty owe. 
Who to the World dost all her Glory shew : 
Then thou shalt make the Frophesie fall true, 
Whofi-lVst the World (like th' Sea) with knowledge new. 

William Bogherst. 
— 28 — 



To my Friend Mr. George Ahop, on his Characier 
of MARY-LAND. 

Tflis jdain, j/d pithy and concise Description 
Of Mary-ljaxids p lent io If s and sedate condition, 
With other things herein hy you set forth, 
To shew its Rareness, and declare its Worth ; 
ComposW in such a time, when most men were 
Smitten with Sickness, or surpriz'd with Fear, 
Argues a Genins good, and Courage stout. 
In bringing this Design so well about : 
Such generous Freedom waited on thy brain, 
The Work ivas done in midst of greatest pain ; 
And matters flow' d so swiftly from thy source, 
Nature designed thee (sure) for such Discourse. 
Go on then with thy Work so well begun, 
Let it come forth, and boldly see the Sun ; 
Then shalVt be known to all, that from thy Youth 
Thou heldst it Noble to maintain the Truth, 
'Gainst all the Rabble-rout, that yelping stand, 
To cast aspersions on thy MARY-LAND : 
But this thy Work shall vindicate its Fame, 
And as a Trophy memorize thy Name, 
So if without a Tomb thou buried be. 
This Book's a lasting Monument for thee. 

H. W., Master of Arts. 

From my Study, 
Jan. lo. 1665. 

— 29 — 



To my Friend Mr. Geo rye Ahop, on his Character 
of MARY-LAND. 

Columbus with Apollo sure did set, 
When he did Court to propigate thy Wit, 
Or else thy Genius with so small a Clew, 
Could not have brought such Intricates in vieir ; 
Discover'd hidden Earth so plain, that we 
Vieir more in this, then if ive tvent to see, 
MARY - LAND, I with some thousands tnore, 
Could not imagine where she stood before ; 
And hadst thou still been silent with thy Pen, 
We had continued still the selfsame men, 
Ne're to have known the glory of that Soyle, 
Whose plentioHS d treUings Is four thousand mile. 
The portly Susquehanock In his naked dress, 
Had certain still been Pigmye, or much less ; 
All had been dark (to us J and obscure yet, 
Had not thy diligence discover'd it : 
For this we owe thee Praises to the Sk'ie, 
But none but MARY - LAND can gratifie. 

Will. Barber.* 

* Our knowledge of those who wrote the preceding verses to our 
author is confined to that gathered from this book. Those written 
by Will. Barber were omitted in the Gowans reprint 



— 30 



A 

CHARACTER 

Of the PROVINCE of 

MARY-LAND. 

CHAP. I. 

Of the situation and plenty of the Province of Mary-Land. 

MARY-LAND is a Province situated upon 
the large extending bowels of America, 
under the Government of the Lord Baltemore, ad- 
jacent Northwardly upon the Confines of New- 
England, and neighbouring Southwardly upon 
Vh'ijinia, dwelling pleasantly upon the Bay of 
Chwsapike, between the Degrees of 36 and 38, * in 

*In 1606 James I. formed two companies by a single charter. To 
one, the London Company, he granted the Atlantic coast of North 
America between latitude 34 and 38 degrees; to the other, the Plym- 
outh Company, he granted that coast between latitude 41 and 45 
degrees. The intervening space was to be common to both, but 
neither was to plant a settlement within one hundred miles of a 
previous settlement of the other. The grant to the London Com- 
pany received the name of Virginia, and that to the Plymouth 
Company, of New England. The London Company surrendered its 
charter in the year 1624; and eight years later the coast from a point 
a trifle south of latitude 3S degrees northward to latitude 40 degrees 
was included in the grant of Maryland. But in 168 1 William Penn 
received the grant of Pennsylvania and then arose that boundary 
dispute which resulted in the loss to Maryland, in 1685, of what is 
now the state of Delaware, and finally, in 1767, of a strip twenty 
miles wide along her entire>orthern border. Alsop should have said 
between the degrees 38 and 40 instead of 36 and 38. 

— 31 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

the Zone temperate, and by Mathematical com- 
putation is eleven hundred and odd Leagues in 
Longitude from Enrj/a/ifJ, being within her own 
imbraces extraordinary pleasant and fertile. 
Pleasant, in respect of the multitude of Navigable 
Rivers and Creeks that conveniently and most 
profitably lodge within the armes of her green, 
spreading, and delightful Woods; whose natural 
womb (by her plenty) maintains and preserves the 
several diversities of Animals that rangingly 
inhabit her Woods; as she doth otherwise gener- 
ously fructifie this piece of Earth with almost all 
sorts of Vegetables, as well Flowers with their 
varieties of colours and smells, as Herbes and 
Roots with their several effects and operative 
virtues, that offer their benefits daily to supply 
the want of the Inhabitant whene're their neces- 
sities shall Suh-poena them to wait on their com- 
mands. So that he, who out of curiosity desires 
to see the Landskip of the Creation drawn to the 
life, or to read Natures universal Herbal without 
book, may with the Opticks of a discreet discern- 
ing, view Mary -Land drest in her green and fra- 
grant Mantle of the Spring. Neither do I think 
there is any place under the Heavenly altitude, 
or that has footing or room upon the circular 
Globe of this world, that can parallel this fertile 
and pleasant piece of ground in its multiplicity, 
or rather N atures extravagancy of a superabound- 

— 32 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

iug plenty.* For so mucli doth this Country 
increase in a swelling Spring-tide of rich variety 
and diversities of all things, not only common 
provisions that supply the reaching stomach of 
man with a satisfactory plenty, but also extends 
with its liberality and free convenient benefits to 
each sensitive faculty, according to their several 
desiring Appetites. So that had Nature made it 
her business, on purpose to have found out a situa- 
tion for the Soul of profitable Ingenuity, she could 
not have fitted herself better in the traverse of 
the whole Universe, nor in convenienter terms 
have told man, Dwell here^ live plentifully and he 
rich. 

The Trees, Plants, Fruits, Flowers, and Roots 
that grow here in Mary-Land, are the only Em- 
blems or Hieroglyphicks of our Adamitical or 
Primitive situation, as well for their variety as 
odoriferous smells, together with their vertues, 
according to their several effects, kinds and prop- 
erties, which still bear the Effigies of Innocency 
according to their original Grafts ; which by their 
dumb vegetable Oratory, each hour speaks to the 
Inhabitant in silent acts. That they need not look 
for any other Terrestrial Paradice, to suspend or 
tyre their curiosity upon, while she is extant. For 

* " Maryland is considered the most fertile portion of North Amer- 
ica." — Danker s and Sluyters in Memorials of the Long Island 
Historical Society, vol. I., p. 194. " The mould is black, a foot 
deep."— A Relation of Maryland {xt^^), p. 22. 

— 33 — 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

within her doth dwell so much of variety, so much 
of natural plenty, that there is not any thing that 
is or may be rare, but it inhabits within this plen- 
tious soyle: So that those parts of the Creation 
that have borne the Bell away (for many ages) 
for a vegetable plentiousness, must now in silence 
strike and vayle all, and whisper softly in the 
auditual parts of Mufy-Land, that None hut she in 
this dwells HI uyuhr ; and that as well for that she 
doth exceed in those Fruits, Plants, Trees and 
Roots, that dwell and grow in their several 
Clymes or habitable parts of the Earth besides, as 
the rareness and super-excellency of her own 
glory, which she flourishly abounds in, by the 
abundancy of reserved Rarities, such as the 
remainder of the World (with all its speculative 
art) never bore any occular testimony of as yet. 
I shall forbear to particularize those several sorts 
of vegetables that flourishingly grows here, by 
reason of the vast tediousness that will attend 
upon the description, which therefore makes them 
much more fit for an Herbal, than a small Manu- 
script or History. * 

* Originally the eastern shore contained pine with some hard wood, 
the central portion was covered with forests of hard woods, and the 
northwest portion was covered with mixed forests of white pine, 
hemlock, and hard wood. Although the most that was valuable for 
timber has been cut, there yet remains some pine, hemlock, cedar, 
oak, hickory, walnut, maple, ash, spruce, cypress, birch, chestnut, 
poplar, and basswood. 

" On the plains and in the open fields there is a great abundance 
of grass : hwi the country is, for the most part, thickly wooded. There 

— 34 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

As for the wilde Animals of this Country, 
which loosely inhabits the Woods in multitudes, 
it is impossible to give you an exact description 
of them all, considering the multiplicity as well 
as the diversity of so numerous an extent of Crea- 
tures : But such as has fallen within the compass 
or prospect of my knowledge, those you shall know 
of; videlicet, the Deer, because they are oftner 
seen, and more participated of by the Inhabitants 
of the Land, whose acquaintance by a customary 
familiarity becomes much more common than the 
rest of Beasts that inhabit the Woods by using 
themselves in Herds about the Christian Planta- 
tions. Their flesh, which in some places of this 
Province is the common provision the Inhabitants 
feed on, and which through the extreme glut and 
plenty of it, being daily killed by the Indians^ 
and brought in to the Eiu/lish, as well as that 
which is killed by the Christian Inhabitant, that 

are a great many hickory trees, and the oaks are so straight and 
tall, that beams, sixty feet long and two and one half feet wide, can 
be made of them. The cypress trees also grow to a height of eighty 
feet before they have branches, and three men with arms extended 
can barely reach around their trunks ; and there are plenty of mul- 
berry trees to feed silkworms. . . . There are alder, ash, and 
chestnut trees as large as those which grow in Spain, Italy, and 
France ; and cedars equalling those which Libanus speaks of . . . . 
The woods moreover are passable, not filled with thorns or under- 
growth, but arranged by nature for the production of animals, and 
for affording pleasure to man. . . . Peaches also are so abun- 
dant that an honorable and reliable man positively declared that he 
gave a hundred bushels to his pigs last year. " — Relatio Itmeris , 
pp. 49, 50, 52. See also A Relation of Maryland (1635), pp. 20, 22 ; 
and Dankers and Sluyters, pp. 193, 194, 200. 

— 35 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

doth it more for recreation, than for the benefit 
they reap by it. I say, the flesh of Venison 
becomes (as to food) rather denyed, than any way 
esteemed or desired. And this I speak from an 
experimental knowledge; For when I was under 
a Command, and debarr'd of a four years ranging 
Liberty in the Province of Mary-Land, the Gentle- 
man whom 1 served my conditional and prefixed 
time withall, had at one time in his house four- 
score Venisons, besides plenty of other provisions 
to serve his Family nine months, they being but 
seven in number ; so that before this Venison was 
brought to a period by eating, it so nauseated our 
appetites and stomachs, that plain bread was 
rather courted and desired than it. * 

The Deer here neither in shape nor action differ 
from our Deer in England : The Park they traverse 
their ranging and unmeasured walks in, is 
bounded and impanell'd in with no other pales 
then the rough and billowed Ocean : They are also 
mighty numerous in the Woods, and are little or 
not at all affrighted at the face of a man, but 
(like the Does of Whetstons Parkf) though their 
hydes are not altogether so gaudy to extract an 

*" There are such numbers of swine and deer that they are rather 
an annoyance than an advantage." — Relatio Itineris, p. 51. 

f It is doubtful if this place ever was well known as a park. In 
Alsop's day it must have been somewhat in the country. In the Lon- 
don of to-day there is a street by the name of Whetstone Park in 
Lincoln's Inn Fields at the back of Holbom. 

-36- 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

admiration from the beholder, yet they will stand 
(all most) till they be scratcht. 

As for the Wolves, Bears, and Panthers of this 
Country, they inhabit commonly in great multi- 
tudes up in the remotest parts of the Continent ; 
yet at some certain time they come down near the 
Plantations, but do little hurt or injury worth 
noting, * and that which they do is of so degener- 
ate and low a nature, (as in reference to the 
fierceness and heroick vigour that dwell in the 
same kind of Beasts in other Countries), that they 
are hardly worth mentioning : For the highest of 
their designs and circumventing reaches is but 
cowardly and base, only to steal a poor Pigg, or 
kill a lost and half starved Calf. The Eflfigies of 
a man terrifies them dreadfully, for they no sooner 
espy him but their hearts are at their mouths, 
and the spurs upon their heels, they (having no 
more manners than Beasts) gallop away, and never 
bid them farewell that are behind them. 

The Elke, the Cat of the Mountain, f the Rac- 
koon, the Fox, the Beaver, the Otter, the Possum, 
the Hare, the Squirril, the Monack,:t the Musk- 

* By an act of assembly, first passed in the year 1658, a bounty of 
one hundred pounds of tobacco was offered for every wolf that 
should be killed. 

t Catamount was the name usually given by the colonists to this 
animal f Felts concolor). In our day it is more often called cougar, 
puma, or American lion. 

% Undoubtedly this was intended to designate that animal which 
is now commonly called the woodchuck (A rctomys monax). 

— 37 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

Rat, and several others (whom I'le omit for brevity 
sake) inhabit here in M(ir//-Land in several droves 
and troops, ranging the Woods at their pleasure.* 

The meat of most of these Creatures is good 
for eating, yet of no value nor esteem here, by 
reason of the great plenty of other provisions, and 
are only kill' d by the Indians of the Country for 
their Hydes and Furrs, which become very profit- 
able to those that have the right way of traffiquing 
for them, as well as it redounds to the Indiam 
that take the pains to catch them, and to flay 
and dress their several Hydes, selling and dispos- 
ing them for such Commodities as their Heathenish 
fancy delights in. 

As for those Beasts that were carried over at 
the first seating of the Country, to stock and 
increase the situation, as Cows, Horses, Sheep 
and Hogs,f they are generally tame, and use near 
home, especially the Cows, Sheep and Horses. 
The Hogs, whose increase is innumerable in the 
Woods, do disfrequent home more than the rest 
of Creatures that are looked upon as tame, yet 
with little trouble and pains they are slain and 

* " In the upper parts of the country there are buffaloes, elks, lions, 
bears, wolves, and deer there are in great store in all places that are 
not too much frequented, as also beavers, foxes, otters, and many 
other sorts of beasts." — A Relation of Maryland (1635), pp. 22, 23. 

t Cows, swine, and poultry came chiefly from Virginia, but horses 
and sheep could not be obtained there. Wild horses and wild swine 
were in abundance, but of sheep there were few during the entire 
colonial era; and the census of 1900 gives for the state only 1193 
sheep, but 38,525 horses, 36,616 swine, and 12,950 cattle, 

-38 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 



made provision of. Now they that will with a 
right Historical Survey, view the Woods of Mary- 
Land in this particular, as in reference to Swine, 
must upon necessity judge this Land lineally 
descended from the Gadarmn Territories.* 

May}! -La ml (1 must confess) cannot boast of her 
plenty of Sheep here, as other Countries ; not but 
that they will thrive and increase here, as well as 
in any place of the World besides, but few desire 
them, because they commonly draw down the 
Wolves among the Plantations, as well by the 
sweetness of their flesh, as by the humility of 
their nature, in not making a defensive resistance 
against the rough dealing of a ravenous Enemy. 
They who for curiosity will keep Sheep, may 
expect that after the Wolves have breathed them- 
selves all day in the Woods to sharpen their 
stomachs, they will come without fail and sup 
with them at night, though many times they 
surfeit themselves with the sawce that's dish'd 
out of the muzzle of a Gun, and so in the midst of 
their banquet (poor Animals) they often sleep 
with their Ancestors. 

Fowls of all sorts and varieties dwell at their 
several times and seasons here in Manj-Land: 
The Turkey, the Woodcock, the Pheasant, the 
Partrich, the Pigeon, and others, especially the 
Turkey, whom I have seen in whole hundreds in 

*See St. Luke, viii., 26-33. 

— 39 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 



flights in the Woods of Mary-Land^ being an extra- 
ordinary fat Fowl, whose flesh is very pleasant 
and sweet. * These Fowls that I have named are 
intayled from generation to generation to the 
Woods. The Swans, the Geese and Ducks (with 
other Water-Fowl) derogate in this point of setled 
residence ; for they arrive in millionous multitudes 
in Marij-Land about the middle of September, and 
take their winged farewell about the midst of 
May eh : f But while they do remain, and beleagure 
the borders of the shoar with their winged Dra- 
goons, several of them are summoned by a Writ 
of Fieri facias, to answer their presumptuous con- 
tempt upon a Spit. 

*" There are great quantities of wild turkeys, which are twice as 
large as our tame and domestic ones." — Relatto Itmeris, p. 52. 
" Wild turkeys in great abundance, whereof many weigh fifty 
pounds and upward." — A Relation of Maryland (1635), p. 23. 

f " I have nowhere seen so many ducks together as were in the 
creek in front of this house. The water was so black with them that 
it seemed when you looked up from the land below upon the water, 
as if it were a mass of filth or turf, and when they flew up there was 
a rushing and vibration of the air like a great storm coming through 
the trees, and even like the rumbling of distant thunder, while the 
sky over the whole creek was filled with them like a cloud. ... I 
must not forget to mention the great number of wild geese we saw 
here on the river. They rose in flocks not of ten or twelve, or twenty 
or thirty, but continually, wherever we pushed our way ; and as they 
made room for us, there was such an incessant clattering made with 
their wings on the water where they rose, and such a noise of those 
flying higher up, that it was as if we were all the time surrounded 
by a whirlwind or a storm. This proceeded not only from geese, 
but from ducks and other water fowl ; and it is not peculiar to this 
place alone, but it occurred on all the creeks and rivers we crossed, 
though they were most numerous in the morning and evening when 
they are most easily shot. " — Bankers and Sluyters, pp. 204, 20S. 

— 40 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

As for Fish, which dwell in the watry tene- 
ments of the deep, and by a providential greatness 
of power, is kept for the relief of several Coun- 
tries in the world (which would else sink under 
the rigid enemy of want), here in Manj-Land is a 
large sufficiency, and plenty of almost all sorts of 
Fishes, which live and inhabit within her several 
Rivers and Creeks, far beyond the apprehending 
or crediting of those that never saw the same, 
which with very much ease is catched, to the great 
refreshment of the Inhabitants of the Province. * 

All sorts of Grain, as Wheat, Rye, Barley, 
Gates, Pease, besides several others that have 
their original and birth from the fertile womb of 
this Land (and no where else), they all grow, 
increase, and thrive here in Marij-Land, without 
the chargable and laborious manuring of the 
Land with Dung; increasing in such a measure 
and plenty, by the natural richness of the Earth, 
with the common, beneficial and convenient 
showers of rain that usually wait upon the several 
Fields of Grain (by a natural instinct), so that 
Famine (the dreadful Ghost of penury and want) 

*" The sea, the bays of Chesapeake and Delaware, and generally- 
all the rivers, do abound with fish of several sorts ; for many of them 
we have no English names: there are whales, sturgeons, very large 
and good and in great abundance; grampuses, porpuses, mullets, 
trout, mackerel, perch, crabs, oysters, cockles, and mussels. But 
above all these, the fish that have no English names are the best, 
/ except sturgeons. " — A Relation of Maryland (1635), p. 23. See 
also Relatio Itmeris, pp. 48, 49, 51; and Bankers and Shtyters , 
p. 195. 

— 41 — 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

is never known with his pale visage to haunt the 
Dominions of Mary -Land* 

Could' st thou (0 Earth) live thus obscure, and now 
Within an Age, shew forth thy plentious brow 
Of rich variety, gilded with fruitful Fame, 
That {Trumpet-like) doth Heraldize thy Name, 
And tells the World there is a Land now found. 
That all Eatih's Globe can"* t parallel its Ground? 
Dwell, and be prosperous, and with thy plenty feed 
The craving Carkesses of those Souls that need. 



CHAP. II. 

Of the Government atid Natural disposition of the People. 

MARY- LAND, not from the remoteness of 
her situation, but from the regularity of 
her well ordered Government, may (without sin, 
1 think) be called Singular: And though she is 
not supported with such large Revenues as some 
of her Neighbours are, yet such is her wisdom in 

* As a matter of fact there was but little English grain grown in the 
province before about the year 1735. From the beginning, an act of 
assembly required that for every one working in tobacco at least two 
acres of corn should be planted under penalty of two hundred pounds 
of tobacco for each acre in default. An act for the encouragement 
of the sowing of English grain, first passed in the year 1662, had 
little effect ; and com continued to be the main cereal for master, 
servant, and beast. See A Relation of Maryland (1635), pp. 27, 28; 
Relatio Itineris, p. 52; Bankers and Sluyters, pp. 191, 197, 211, 
212, 217; and Mereness's Maryland as a Proprietary Province, pp. 
120-125. 

— 42 — 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

a reserved silence, and not in pomp, to shew her 
well -conditioned Estate, in relieving at a distance 
the proud poverty of those that wont be seen they 
want, as well as those which by undeniable neces- 
sities are drove upon the Rocks of pinching wants : 
Yet such a loathsome creature is a common and 
folding-handed Beggar, that upon the penalty of 
almost a perpetual working in Imprisonment, they 
are not to appear, nor lurk near our vigilant and 
laborious dwellings. The Country hath received 
a general spleen and antipathy against the very 
name and nature of it ; and though there were no 
Law provided (as there is) to suppress it, 1 am 
certainly confident, there is none within the 
Province that would lower themselves so much 
below the dignity of men to beg, as long as limbs 
and life keep house together ; so much is a vigilant 
industrious care esteem' d. 

He that desires to see the real Platform of a 
quiet and sober Government extant. Superiority 
with a meek and yet commanding power sitting at 
the Helme, steering the actions of State quietly, 
through the multitude and diversity of Opinionous 
waves that diversely meet, let him look on Man/- 
Land with eyes admiring, and he'le then judge 
her, The Miracle of this Age. 

Here the Bornan Catholick, and the Protestant 
Episcopal, (whom the world would perswade have 
proclaimed open Wars irrevocably against each 

— 43 — 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

other) contrarywise concur in an unanimous 
parallel of friendship, and inseparable love 
intayled unto one another : * All Inquisitions, 
Martyrdom, and Banishments are not so much as 
named, but unexpressably abhorr'd by each other. 
The several Opinions and Sects that lodge 
within this Government, meet not together in 
mutinous contempts to disquiet the power that 
bears Rule, but with a reverend quietness obeys 
the legal commands of Authority.! Here's never 
seen Five Monarchies in a Zealous Rebellion, 
opposing the Rights and Liberties of a true setled 
Government, or Monarchical Authority : % Nor 
did I ever see (here in Mary -Land) any of those 

* There was in general no such good feeling as this between 
Catholics and Protestants. See Mereness's Maryland as a Proprie- 
tary Provmce, p. 435 et seq. 

t In July, 1659, because of the insubordination of a few Quakers, 
who had recently come into the province, Governor Fendall and his 
council passed an order directing that such Quakers as returned after 
having been once banished should be whipped from constable to 
constable until they were again out of the province ; but this order 
remained in force for little more than one year and it is not certain 
that there was a single instance of its execution. 

X The fifth monarchy men were a religious sect that appeared in 
England during the period of the Commonwealth. They believed 
that the time had come for the establishment of the " fifth mon- 
archy," the one to succeed the Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, 
and the Roman, and over which Christ with his saints should reign 
a thousand years. After the Restoration, in January, 1661, fifty of 
them, under the leadership of a wine-cooper named Venner, 
attempted to take possession of London in the name of " King 
Jesus." In this attempt the most of them were either killed or taken 
prisoners, and the same month Venner and ten others were executed 
for high treason. 

— 44 — 



A L S O P ' S MAR y L A N D 

dancing Adamitical Sisters, that plead a primitive 
Innocency for their base obscenity, and naked 
deportment; but I conceive if some of them were 
there at some certain time of the year, between the 
Months of Jmniarij and Fehnmrj), when the winds 
blow from the North- West quarter of the world, 
that it would both cool, and (I believe) convert 
the hottest of these Zealots from their burning 
and fiercest Concupiscence. 

The Government of this Province doth continu- 
ally, by all lawful means, strive to purge her 
Dominions from such base corroding humors, 
that would predominate upon the least smile of 
Liberty, did not the Laws check and bridle in 
those unwarranted and tumultuous Opinions. 
And truly, where a Kingdom, State or Govern- 
ment, keeps or cuts down the weeds of destructive 
Opinions, there must certainly be a blessed Har- 
mony of quietness. And I really believe this 
Land or Government of Mary-Lrnid may boast, 
that she enjoys as much quietness from the dis- 
turbance of Rebellious Opinions, as most States or 
Kingdoms do in the world: For here every man 
lives quietly, and follows his labour and imploy- 
ment desiredly; and by the protection of the 
Laws, they are supported from those molestious 
troubles that ever attend upon the Commons 
of other States and Kingdoms, as well as from 
the Aquafortial operation of great and eating 

— 45 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

Taxes. * Here' s nothing to be levyed out of the 
Granaries of Corn; but contrarywise, by a Law 
every Domestick Governor of a Family is enjoyned 
to make or cause to be made so much Corn by a 
just limitation, as shall be sufficient for him and 
his Family : So that by this wise and Janus-\\^e 
providence, the thin- jawed Skeliton with his 
starv'd Carkess is never seen walking the Woods 
of Mdnj-Ldiid to affrighten Children. 

Once every year within this Province is an As- 
sembly called, and out of every respective County 
(by the consent of the people) there is chosen a 
number of men, and to them is deliver' d up the 
Grievances of the Country; and they maturely 
debate the matters, and according to their Con- 
sciences make Laws for the general good of the 
people; and where any former Law that was 
made, seems and is prejudicial to the good or 



* An act of assembly, in force subsequent to the year 1650, forbade 
the levying of any subsidy, aid, customs, tax, or imposition upon 
the freemen of Maryland before the consent of their representatives 
in assembly had been first obtained. The year in which our author 
wrote there was imposed a poll-tax of twenty-five pounds of tobacco, 
a port duty of one-half pound of powder and three pounds of shot (or 
their equivalent) per ton, and each county, by a poll-tax, paid for 
the food and lodging of its delegates during a session of assembly, 
as well as the ferry expenses incurred. For a few years prior to this 
the delegates had been paid for each day's service in assembly and 
the expense of a few small expeditions against the Indians had been 
incurred. Otherwise the taxes had hitherto been even less. The 
officers of the government were, however, supported by fees, by the 
sale of licenses, and by fines and forfeitures more than by taxes and 
duties. See Mereness's Maryland as a Proprietary Province, pp. 
171-174, 181, 182, 249-251, 319, et seq. 

-46- 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

0^688 of the Land, it is repealed. These men 
that determine on these matters for the Repub- 
lique, are called Burgesses, and they commonly 
sit in Junto about six weeks, being for the most 
part good ordinary Householders of the several 
Counties, which do more by a plain and honest 
Conscience, than by artificial Syllogisms drest up 
in gilded Orations.* 

Here Suits and Tryals in Law seldome hold dis- 
pute two Terms or Courts, but according as the 
Equity of the Cause appears is brought to a 
period. The TemiAes and Grmjs-Inne are clear out 
of fashion here: Marriott would sooner get a 

~7^;;^^;~^to the year 1650 the freemen met in assembly in person, 
or were represented there either by proxies privately chosen or by 
delegates publicly elected; but in that and subsequent years they 
were repreLnted in that body by delegates only. Until 1654 repre- 
sentation was by hundreds, but from that time i^t was ^Y J^^^^^ " 
four from each except for a short interval. In / 649 or 1650 the 
assembly which had hitherto sat as one house was divided mto two - 
U e coundl, at first with the governor but later -thout him consti- 
tuting the upper house, and the people's delegates the lo-er For 
a time the lord proprietor attempted to reserve to himself or to the 
governor in council the sole right of initiating legislation, but this 
he surrendered in 1638. From 1666 to 1669, from 1671 to 1674. and 
from 1681 to 1684 there was no session of the assembly, but with 
these exceptions there was scarcely a year of proprietary gove-ment 
in which that body did not meet at least once; and with but two 
exceptions, when the interval was about five years, there never was 
a time under that government in which there was not an election of 
delegates after an interval of about three years or less. 

+ '•Marriott, John (d. 1653). ' the great eater.' familiarly known as 
Ben Marriott, is said to have been a respectable lawyer. ^^1^" ^^^^^^^ 
Gray's Inn during the reign of James 1.. and at the time of his death, 
in 1653, was the patriarch of the society. • • • He became 
notorious in the year previous to his death owing to the circulation 

— 47 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

paunch-devouring meal for nothing, then for his 
invading Counsil. Here if the Lawyer had noth- 
ing else to maintain him but his bawling, he 
might button up his Chops, and burn his Buckrom 
Bag, or else hang it upon a pin untill its Antiq- 
uity had eaten it up with durt and dust: Then 
with a Spade, like his Grandsire Adam, turn up 
the face of the Creation, purchasing his bread by 
the sweat of his brows, that before was got by the 
motionated Water- works of his jaws.* So con- 
trary to the Genius of the people, if not to the 
quiet Government of the Province, that the turbu- 
lent Spirit of continued and vexatious Law, with 
all its querks and evasions, is openly and most 
eagerly opposed, that might make matters either 
dubious, tedious, or troublesom.f All other mat- 
ters that would be ranging in contrary and 
improper Spheres, (in short) are here by the Power 
moderated, lower' d and subdued. All villanous 
Outrages that are committed in other States, are 
not so much as known here : A man may walk in 
the open Woods as secure from being externally 
dissected, as in his own house or dwelling. So 
hateful is a Robber, that if but once imagined to 

of a malicious and licentious pasquinade, entitled, ' The Great Eater 
of Graye's Inn, or the Life of Mr. Marriott, the Cormorant. ' " — 
Dictionary of National Biography. 

* Lawyers were, indeed, scarce in Maryland during the seven- 
teenth century, but were somewhat numerous and influential in the 
eighteenth. 

t Contrast this witli Cook's The Sot- Weed Factor, pp. 15, 16. 

— 48 — 



A L S P ' S MAkYLAMD 

be so, he's kept at a distance, and shun'd as the 
Pestilential noysomness. * 

It is generally and very remarkably observed, 
That those whose Lives and Conversations have 
had no other gloss nor glory stampt on them in 
their own Country, but the stigmatization of base- 
ness, were here (by the common civilities and 
deportments of the Inhabitants of this Province) 
brought to detest and loath their former actions. 
Here the Constable hath no need of a train of 
Holberteers, that carry more Armour about them, 
then heart to guard him : Nor is he ever troubled 
to leave his Feathered Nest to some friendly suc- 
cessor, while he is placing of his Lanthern-horn 
Guard at the end of some suspicious Street, to 
catch some Night-walker, or Batchelor of Leach - 
ery, that has taken his Degree three story high in 
a Bawdy-house. Here's no Newyates for pilfering 
Felons, nor Ludgates for Debtors, nor any Bride- 
welsj- to lash the soul of Concupiscence into a 
chast Repentance. For as there is none of these 
Prisons in Mary-Land,X so the merits of the Coun- 

* Maryland seems to have been quite free from robberies until the 
middle of the eighteenth century, when, for a time, some convict 
servants, sent over from England, renewed their former practice. 

t Newgate, Ludgate, and Bridewell are well known London 
prisons. 

X It was in the year 1662 that the assembly made its first appropria- 
tion for a prison at St. Marys, and only a few years later that body 
directed the justices of each county to provide their county with a 
prison, a pillory, stocks, a whipping-post, and a burning-iron. 

— 49 — 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

try deserves none, but if any be foully vitious, he 
is so reserv'd in it, that he seldom or never 
becomes popular. Common Alehouses, (whose 
dwellings are the only Receptacles of debauchery 
and baseness, and those Schools that trains up 
Youth, as well as Age, to ruine) in this Province 
there are none ; * neither hath Youth his swing 
or range in such a profuse and unbridled liberty 
as in other Countries ; for from an antient Custom 
at the primitive seating of the place, the Son 
works as well as the Servant (an excellent cure 
for untam'd Youth), so that before they eat their 
bread, they are commonly taught how to earn it ; 
which makes them by that time Age speaks them 
capable of receiving that which their Parents 
indulgency is ready to give them, and which 
partly is by their own laborious industry pur- 
chased, they manage it with such a serious, grave 
and watching care, as if they had been Masters 
of Families, trained up in that domestick and 
governing power from their Cradles. These 
Christian Natives of the Land, especially those of 

* Only thirteen years later Bankers and Sluyters wrote of these 
same people in their journal: " When the ships arrive with goods, 
and especially with liquors, such as wine and brandy, they attract 
everybody, that is, masters, to them, who then indulge so abomin- 
ably together, that they keep nothing for the rest of the year, yea, do 
not go away as long as there is any left, or bring any thing liome 
with them which might be useful to them in their subsequent neces- 
sities. . . . They squander so much in this way, that they keep 
no tobacco to buy a shoe or a stocking for their children which 
soiiietimes causes great misery." 

— qo — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

the Masculine Sex, are generally conveniently con- 
fident, reservedly subtle, quick in apprehending, 
but slow in resolving; and where they spy profit 
sailing towards them with the wings of a prosper- 
ous gale, there they become much familiar. The 
Women differ something in this point, though not 
much: They are extreme bashful at the first view, 
but after a continuance of time hath brought 
them acquainted, there they become discreetly 
familiar, and are much more talkative then men. 
All Complemental Courtships, drest up in critical 
Rarities, are meer strangers to them, plain wit 
comes nearest their Genius; so that he that 
intends to Court a Mary-Land Girle, must have 
something more than the Tautologies of a long- 
winded speech to carry on his design, or else he 
may (for ought I know) fall under the contempt of 
her frown, and his own windy Oration. 

One great part of the Inhabitants of this Prov- 
ince are desiredly Zealous, great pretenders to 
Holiness; and where any thing appears that car- 
ries on the Frontispiece of its Effigies the stamp 
of Religion, though fundamentally never so imper- 
fect, they are suddenly taken with it, and out of 
an eager desire to any thing that's new, not 
weighing the sure matter in the Ballance of 
Reason, are very apt to be catcht. * Quaker ism is 
the only Opinion that bears the Bell away: The 

*This is our author's habitual way of talking about the Puritans. 

— 51 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

Anabaptists have little to say here, as well as in 
other places, since the Ghost of Jolin of Ley den 
haunts their Conventicles. The Adamite, Banter, 
and Fift-Monarchy men, Mary-Land cannot, nay 
will not digest within her liberal stomach such 
corroding morsels: So that this Province is an 
utter Enemy to blasphemous and zealous Impreca- 
' tions, drain' d from the Lymbeck of hellish and 
damnable Spirits, as well as profuse prophaness, 
that issues from the prodigality of none but cract- 
brain Sots. 

^Tis said the Gods lower down that Chain above, 
That tyes both Prince and Subject up in Love; 
And if this Fiction of the Gods be true, 
Few, Mary-Land^ in this can boast but you: 
Live ever blest, and let those Clouds that do 
Eclipse most States, be alwayes Lights to you; 
And dwelling so, you may for ever be 
The only Emblem of Tranquility. 



CHAP. III. 



The necessariness of Servitude proved, with the common usage of 
Servants in Mary-Land, together with their Priviledges. 

AS there can be- no Monarchy without the 
Supremacy of a King and Crown, nor no 
King without Subjects, nor any Parents without 
it be by the fruitful offspring of Children; neither 

— 52 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 



can there be any Masters, unless it be by the 
inferior Servitude of those that dwell under them, 
by a commanding enjoynment: And since it is 
ordained from the original and superabounding 
wisdom of all things, That there should be Degrees 
and Diversities amongst the Sons of men, in 
acknowledging of a Superiority from Inferiors to 
Superiors; the Servant with a reverent and befit- 
ting Obedience is as liable to this duty in a meas- 
urable performance to him whom he serves, as the 
loyalest of Subjects to his Prince. Then since it 
is a common and ordained Fate, that there must 
be Servants as well as Masters, and that good 
Servitudes are those Colledges of Sobriety that 
checks in the giddy and wild-headed youth from 
his profuse and uneven course of life, by a limited 
constrainment, as well as it otherwise agrees with 
the moderate and discreet Servant: Why should 
there be such an exclusive Obstacle in the minds 
and unreasonable dispositions of many people, 
against the limited time of convenient and neces- 
sary Servitude, when it is a thing so requisite, 
that the best of Kingdoms would be unhing'd from 
their quiet and well setled Government without 
it. Which levelling doctrine we here of England 
in this latter age (whose womb was trussed out 
with nothing but confused Rebellion) have too 
much experienced, and was daily rung into the 
ears of the tumultuous Vulgar by the Bell-weather 

— 53 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 



Sectaries of the Times : But (blessed be God) those 
Clouds are blown over, and the Government of 
the Kingdom coucht under a more stable form. 

There is no truer Emblem of Confusion either 
in Monarchy or Domestick Governments, then 
when either the Subject, or the Servant, strives 
for the upper hand of his Prince, or Master, and 
to be equal with him, from whom he receives his 
present subsistance: Why then, if Servitude be 
so necessary that no place can be governed in 
order, nor people live without it, this may serve to 
tell those which prick up their ears and bray 
against it. That they are none but Asses, and 
deserve the Bridle of a strict commanding power 
to reine them in: For I' me certainly confident, 
that there are several Thousands in most King- 
doms of Christendom, that could not at all live 
and subsist, unless they had served some prefixed 
time, to learn either some Trade, Art, or Science, 
and by either of them to extract their present 
livelihood. 

Then methinks this may stop the mouths of 
those that will undiscreetly compassionate them 
that dwell under necessary Servitudes; for let 
but Parents of an indifferent capacity in Estates, 
when their Childrens age by computation speak 
them seventeen or eighteen years old, turn them 
loose to the wide world, without a seven years 
working Apprenticeship (being just brought up to 

— 54 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 



the bare formality of a little reading and writing) 
and you shall immediately see how weak and 
shiftless they'le be towards the maintaining and 
supporting of themselves; and (without either 
stealing or begging) their bodies like a Sentinel 
must continually wait to see when their Souls will 
be frighted away by the pale Ghost of a starving 
want. 

Then let such, where Providence hath ordained 
to live as Servants, either in EHfihnid or beyond 
Sea, endure the prefixed yoak of their limited 
time with patience, and then in a small computa- 
tion of years, by an industrious endeavour, they 
may become Masters and Mistresses of Families * 
themselves. And let this be spoke to the deserved 
praise of Mart/- Land ^ That the four years I 
served there were not to me so slavish, as a two 
years Servitude of a Handicraft Apprenticeship 
was here in London ; Volenti enim nil difficile: Not 
that 1 write this to seduce or delude any, or to 
draw them from their native soyle, but out of a 
love to my Countrymen, whom in the general 1 
wish well to, and that the lowest of them may live 
in such a capacity of Estate, as that the bare 
interest of their Livelihoods might not altogether 
depend upon persons of the greatest extendments. 

Now those whose abilities here in England are 
capable of maintaining themselves in any reason- 
able and handsom manner, they had best so to 

— 55 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

remain, lest the roughness of the Ocean, together 
with the staring visages of the wilde Animals, 
which they may see after their arrival into the 
Country, may alter the natural dispositions of 
their bodies, that the stay'd and solid part that 
kept its motion by Doctor Trirfn purgationary 
operation, may run beyond the byas of the wheel 
in a violent and laxative confusion. 

Now contrarywise, they who are low, and make 
bare shifts to buoy themselves up above the shabby 
center of beggarly and incident casualties, 1 
heartily could wish the removal of some of them 
into Mary-Land, which would make much better 
for them that stay'd behind, as well as it would 
advantage those that went. 

They whose abilities cannot extend to purchase 
their own transportation over into Mary -Land, (and 
surely he that cannot command so small a sum for 
so great a matter, his life must needs be mighty low 
and dejected)* 1 say they may for the debarment 
of a four years sordid liberty, go over into this 
Province and there live plentiously well. And 
what's a four years Servitude to advantage a man 
all the remainder of his dayes, making his prede- 
cessors happy in his sufficient abilities, which he 
attained to partly by the restrainment of so small 
a time? 

• The amount required for paying passage at this time was abov:t 
six pounds sterling. 

-56- 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

JSow those that commit themselves unto the care 
of the Merchant to carry them over, they need 
not trouble themselves with any inquisitive search 
touching their Voyage ; for there is such an honest 
care and provision made for them all the time 
tliey remain aboard the Ship, and are sailing 
over, that they want for nothing that is necessary 
and convenient. 

The Merchant commonly before they go aboard 
the Ship, or set themselves in any forwardness for 
their Voyage, has Conditions of Agreements 
drawn between him and those that by a volun- 
tary consent become his Servants, to serve him, 
his Heirs or Assigns, according as they in their 
primitive acquaintance have made their bargain, 
some two, some three, some four years;* and 
whatever the Master or Servant tyes himself up 
to here in England by Condition, the Laws of the 
Province will force a performance of when they 
come there : Yet here is this Priviledge in it when 
they arrive. If they dwell not with the Merchant 
they made their first agreement withall, they may 
choose whom they will serve their prefixed time 
with ; and after their curiosity has pitcht on one 
whom they think fit for their turn, and that they 
may live well withall, the Merchant makes an 
Assignment of the Indenture over to him whom 

* This was the indenture, and those who came subject to one were 
called indentured, or indented, servants. 

— 57 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

they of their free will have (-hosen to be their 
Master,* in the same nature as we here in E"////- 
hnid (and no otherwise) turn over Covenant Ser- 
vants or Apprentices from one Master to another. 
Then let those whose chaps are always breathing 
forth those filthy dregs of abusive exclamations, 
which are Lymbeckt from their sottish and prepos- 
terous brains, against this Country of Mary-Land, 
saying. That those which are transported over 
thither, are sold in open Market for Slaves, and 
draw in Carts like Horses; which is so damnable 
an untruth, that if they should search to the very 
Center of Hell, and enquire for a Lye of the most 
antient and damned stamp, 1 confidently believe 
they could not find one to parallel this: For 
know, That the Servants here in Mary-Land of all 
Colonies, distant or remote Plantations, have the 
least cause to complain, either for strictness of 
Servitude, want of Provisions, or need of Ap- 
parel : f Five dayes and a half in the Summer 
weeks is the alotted time that they work in ; and 
for two months, when the Sun predominates in 
the highest pitch of his heat, they claim an 

* Servants who enjoyed the privilege of choosing their own master 
upon their arrival in the province were called free-willers. In our 
day these as well as those then called indented servants are com- 
monly spoken of as redemptioners. 

t We may readily believe that Alsop is here speaking too exclu- 
sively from his own experience to give a true picture of the general 
treatment of servants in Maryland at this time. See Dankers and 
Sluyters, pp. 191, 216; Eddis's Letters frotn America, pp. 63-89; 
and Mereness's Maryland as a Proprietary Province, pp. 134-136. 

-58- 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

antient and customary Priviledge, to repose them- 
selves three hours in the day within the house, 
and this is undeniably granted to them that work 
in the Fields. 

In the Winter time, which lasteth three months 
{viz.) December, Januanj, and Febnairi/, they do 
little or no work or imployment, save cutting of 
wood to make good fires to sit by, unless their 
Ingenuity will prompt them to hunt the Deer, or 
Bear, or recreate themselves in Fowling, to 
slaughter the Swans, Geese, and Turkeys (which 
this Country affords in a most plentiful manner:) 
For every Servant has a Gun, Powder and Shot 
allowed him, to sport him withall on all Holidayes 
and leasurable times, if he be capable of using it, 
or be willing to learn. 

Now those Servants which come over into this 
Province, being Artificers, they never (during 
their Servitude) work in the Fields, or do any 
other imployment save that which their Handi- 
craft and Mechanick endeavours are capable of 
putting them upon, and are esteem' d as well by 
their Masters, as those that imploy them, above 
measure. He that's a Tradesman here in Mary- 
Land (though a Servant), lives as well as most 
common Handicrafts do in London,* though they 
may want something of that Liberty which Free- 

* Here, also, our author is perhaps speaking from experience more 

than from observation. 

— 59-- 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

men have, to go and come at their pleasure; yet 
if it were rightly understood and considered, 
what most of the Liberties of the several poor 
Tradesmen are taken up about, and what a care 
and trouble attends that thing they call Liberty, 
which according to the common translation is but 
Idleness, and (if weighed in the Ballance of a just 
Reason) will be found to be much heavier and 
cloggy then the four years restrainment of a Mtirt/- 
Land Servitude. He that lives in the nature of a 
Servant in this Province, must serve but four 
years by the Custom of the Country ; and when 
the expiration of his time speaks him a Freeman, 
there's a Law in the Province, that enjoyns his 
Master whom he hath served to give him Fifty 
Acres of Land, Corn to serve him a whole year, 
three Sutes of Apparel, with things necessary to 
them, and Tools to work withall ; so that they are 
no sooner free, but they are ready to set up for 
themselves, and when once entred, they live pass- 
ingly well. 

The Women that go over into this Province as 
Servants, have the best luck here as in any place 
of the world besides; for they are no sooner on 
shoar, but they are courted into a Copulative 
Matrimony, which some of them (for aught 1 
know) had they not come to such a Market with 
their Virginity, might have kept it by them untill 
it had been mouldy, unless they had let it out by 

— 60 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 



a yearly rent to some of the Inhabitants of 
Lewknors-lane,* or made a Deed of Gift of it to 
Mother Coney, having only a poor stipend out of 
it, untill the Gallows or Hospital called them 
away. Men have not altogether so good luck as 
Women in this kind, or natural preferment, with- 
out they be good Rhetoricians, and well vers'd in 
the Art of perswasion, then (probably) they may 
ryvet themselves in the time of their Servitude 
into the private and reserved favour of their Mis- 
tress, if Age speak their Master deficient. 

In short, touching the Servants of this Province, 
they live well in the time of their Service, and by 
their restrainment in that time, they are made 
capable of living much better when they come to 
be free ; which in several other parts of the world 
1 have observed. That after some servants have 
brought their indented and limited time to a just 
and legal period by Servitude, they have been 
much more incapable of supporting themselves 
from sinking into the Gulf of a slavish, poor, fet- 
tered, and intangled life, then all the fastness of 
their prefixed time did involve them in before. 

Now the main and principal Reason of those 
incident casualties, that wait continually upon 
the residencies of most poor Artificers, is (I gather) 
from the multiplicity or innumerableness of those 



* This was one of the disreputable places in the parish of St. Giles, 
London. 

— 6l — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

several Companies of Tradesmen, that dwell so 
closely and stiflingly together in one and the same 
place, that like the chafing Gum in Watered - 
Tabby, they eat into the folds of one anothers 
Estates. And this might easily be remedied, 
would but some of them remove and disperse dis- 
tantly where want and necessity calls for them ; 
their dwellings (I am confident) would be much 
larger, and their conditions much better, as well 
in reference to their Estates, as to the satisfactori- 
ness of their minds, having a continual imploy- 
ment, and from that imployment a continual 
benefit, without either begging, seducing, or flat- 
tering for it, encroaching that one month from 
one of the same profession, that they are heaved 
out themselves the next. For 1 have observed on 
the other side of Marif-Land, that the whole course 
of most Mechanical endeavours, is to catch, 
snatch, and undervalue one another, to get a little 
work, or a Customer; which when they have 
attained by their lowbuilt and sneaking circum- 
ventings, it stands upon so flashy, mutable, and 
transitory a foundation, that the best of his hopes 
is commonly extinguisht before the poor under- 
valued Tradesman is warm in the enjoyment of his 
Customer. 

Then did not a cloud of low and base Cowardize 
eclipse the Spirits of these men, these things 
might easily be diverted; but they had as live 

— 62 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 



take a Bear by the tooth, as think of leaving their 
own Country, though they live among their own 
National people, and are governed by the same 
Laws they have here, yet all this wont do with 
them ; and all the Reason they can render to the 
contrary is. There's a great Sea betwixt them and 
Marij-LdiKU and in that Sea there are Fishes, and 
not only Fishes but great Fishes, and then should 
a Ship meet with such an inconsiderable encounter 
as a Whale, one blow with his tayle, and then 
Lord have Mercy upon us: Yet meet with these 
men in their common Exchange, which is one 
story high in the bottom of a Celler, disputing 
over a Black-pot, it would be monstrously dread- 
ful here to insert the particulars, one swearing 
that he was the first that scaled the Walla of 
Din/dec, when the Bullets flew about their ears as 
thick as Hail-stones usually fall from the Sky; 
which if it were but rightly examined, the most 
dangerous Engagement that ever he was in, was 
but at one of the flashy battels at Finsbury, where 
commonly there's more Custard greedily devoured, 
then men prejudiced by the rigour of the War. 
Others of this Company relating their several 
dreadful exploits, and when they are just entring 
into the particulars, let but one step in and inter- 
rupt their discourse, by telling them of a Sea 
Voyage, and the violency of storms that attends 
it, and that there are no back-doors to run out 

-63- 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

at, which they call, a handsom Retreat and Charge 
again; the apprehensive danger of this is so 
powerful and penetrating on them, that a damp 
sweat immediately involves their Microcosm, so 
that Margenj the old Matron of the Celler, is fain 
to run for a half peny-worth of Angelica to rub 
their nostrils ; and though the Port -hole of their 
bodies has been stopt from a convenient Evacua- 
tion some several months, they'le need no other 
Suppository to open the Orifice of their Esculent 
faculties then this Relation, as their Drawers or 
Breeches can more at large demonstrate to the 
inquisitive search of the curious. 

Now I know that some will be apt to judge, 
that I have written this last part out of derision 
to some of my poor Mechanick Country-men: 
Truly I must needs tell those to their face that 
think so of me, that they prejudice me extremely, 
by censuring me as guilty of any such crime: 
What I have written is only to display thesordid- 
ness of their dispositions, who rather than they 
will remove to another Country to live plentiously 
well, and give their Neighbors more Elbow-room 
and space to breath in, they will croud and throng 
upon one another, with the pressure of a beggarly 
and unnecessary weight. 

That which I have to say more in this business, 
is a hearty and desirous wish, that the several 
poor Tradesmen here in London that I know, and 

-64- 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 



have borne an occular testimony of their want, 
might live so free from care as I did when I dwelt 
in the bonds of a four years Servitude in Mary- 
Land. 

Be just {Domestic^ Monarchs) unto them 
That divell as Household Subjects to each Realm; 
Let not your Power make you he too severe, 
Where there's small faults reign in your sharp Career: 
So that the Worlds base yelping Creiv 
May'nt bark what I have wrote is ivrit untrue. 
So use your Servants, if there come no more. 
They may serve Eight, instead of serving Four. 



CHAP. IV. 



upon Trafique. and what Merchandizing Commodities this 

Province affords, also how Tobacco is planted 

and made fit for Comvierce. 

TRafique, Commerce, and Trade, are those 
great wheeles that by their circular and 
continued motion, turn into most Kingdoms of 
the Earth the plenty of abundant Riches that 
they are commonly fed withall: For Trafique in 
his right description, is the very soul of a King- 
dom ; and should but Fate ordain a removal of it 
for some years, from the richest and most popu- 
lous Monarchy that dwells in the most fertile 
clyme of the whole Universe, he would soon find 
by a woful experiment, the miss and loss of so 

— 65 — 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

reviving a supporter. And I am certainly confi- 
dent, that England would as soon feel her feeble- 
ness by withdrawment of so great an upholder; 
as well in reference to the internal and healthful 
preservative of her Inhabitants, for want of those 
Medicinal Drugs that are landed upon her Coast 
every year, as the external profits, Glory and 
beneficial Graces that accrue by her. 

Paracelsus might knock down his Forge, if Tra- 
fique and Commerce should once cease, and grynde 
the hilt of his Sword into Powder, and take some 
of the Infusion to make him so valorous, that he 
might cut his own Throat in the honor of Mercury : 
Galen might then burn his Herbal, and like Joseph 
of Arimathea, build him a Tomb in his Garden, 
and so rest from his labours: Our Physical Col- 
legians of London would have no cause then to 
thunder Fire-balls at Nick. Culpepper s Dispensa- 
tory:* All Herbs, Roots, and Medicines would 

* Nicholas Culpeper was a writer on astrolog}' and medicine. 
" In 1649 Culpeper brought himself into wider note by publishing 
an English translation of the college of Physicians' ' Pharmacopoeia ' 
under the title of ' A Physical Directory, or a Translation of the 
London Dispensatory.' . . . This unauthorized translation ex- 
cited the indignation of the college of Physicians, which was reflected 
in the royalist periodical ' Mercurius Pragmaticus. ' . . . The 
book is there described as ' done (very filthily) into English by one 
Nicholas Culpeper, who commenced the several degrees of Inde- 
pendency, Brownism, Anabaptism; admitted himself of John Good- 
win's school (of all ungodliness) in Coleman Street ; after that he 
turned Seeker, Manifestarian, and now he is arrived at the battle- 
ment of an absolute Atheist, and by two years drunken labor hath 
Gallimawfred the apothecaries book into nonsense, mixing every 
receipt therein with some scruple, at least, of rebellion or atheism, 

— 66 — 



A L S O P ' S MARY LAND 

bear their original christening, that the ignorant 
might understand them: Album grecum would not 
be Album grecum then, but a Dogs turd would be 
a Dogs turd in plain terms, in spight of their 

teeth. 

If Trade should once cease, the Custom-house 
would soon miss her hundreds and thousands 
Hogs-heads of Tobacco,* that use to be throng in 
her every year, as well as the Grocers would in 
their Ware-houses and Boxes, the Gentry and 
Commonalty in their Pipes, the Physician in his 
Drugs and Medicinal Compositions: The (leering) 
Waiters for want of imployment, might (like so 
many Diogenes) intomb themselves in their empty 
Casks, and rouling themselves off the Key into 
the Thames, there wander up and down from tide 
to tide in contemplation of Ansfotles unresolved 
curiosity, until the rottenness of their circular 
habitation give them a QineUis est, and fairly sur- 
render them up into the custody of those who 

besides the danger of poisoning men's bodies. And (to supply his 
dJuntnness an/leache'ry with a thirty shiliing ^;-^2::^iri^ 
to bring into obloquy the famous societies '>\^f^^^^^^''^\'T 
chyrurgeons.- The translation has none of the defects here attnb- 
ulTfit and the abuse was obviously inspired by political oppo- 
nents and the societies whose monopolies Culpeper was charged 
with having infringed.-- D^a^■onary of National mography. 

* England was at this time levying an import duty of twopence 
per pound on this commodity, and early in the -xt centut,. th 
amount received annually from Maryland ^--^^^^^'Z'^^^, 
thousand hogsheads, of which the average weight was at ^east jght 
hundred pounds. The census of 1900 gives 24,589.480 pounds as 
the tobacco crop of Maryland of to-day. 

_67- 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

both for profession, disposition and nature, lay- 
as near claim to tliem, as if they both tumbled in 
one belly, and for name they jump alike, being 
according to tue original translation both Shaykes. 

Silks and Cambricks, and Lawns to make 
sleeves, would be as soon miss'd at Court, as Gold 
and Silver would be in the Mint and Pockets: 
The Low-Country Soldier would be at a cold stand 
for Outlandish Furrs to make him Muffs, to keep 
his ten similitudes warm in the Winter, as well 
as the Furrier for want of Skins to uphold his 
Trade. 

Should Commerce once cease, there is no 
Country in the habitable world but would un- 
doubtedly miss that flourishing, splendid and 
rich gallantry of Equipage, that Trafique main- 
tained and drest her up in, before she received 
that fatal Eclipse : Encjland, France, Germany and 
Spain, together with all the Kingdoms 

But stop (good Muse) lest I should, like the 
Parson of Pajicras, run so far from my Text in 
half an hour, that a two hours trot back again 
WQuld hardly fetch it up: I had best while I am 
alive in my Doctrine, to think again of Mary- 
Land, lest the business of other Countries take up 
so much room in my brain, that I forget and bury 
her in oblivion. 

The three main Commodities this Country 
affords for Trafique, are Tobacco, Furrs, and 

— 68 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 



Flesh. FuiTS and Skins, as Eeavers, Otters, 
Musk-Rats, Rackoons, Wild -Cats, and Elke or 
Buffeloe, with divers others, which were first 
made vendible by the Indians of the Country, and 
sold to the Inhabitant, and by them to the Mer- 
chant, and so transported into Engbtnd and other 
places where it becomes most commodious. 

Tobacco is the only solid Staple Commodity of 
this Province : The use of it was first found out by 
the India HH many Ages agoe, and transferr'd into 
Christendom by that great Discoverer of .4 ///^^y/w 
Columbus. It's generally made by all the Inhab- 
itants of this Province, and between the months 
of March and April they sow the seed (which is 
much smaller then Mustard-seed) in small beds and 
patches digg'd up and made so by art, and about 
Mai) the Plants commonly appear green in those 
beds: In June they are transplanted from their 
beds, and set in little hillocks in distant rowes, 
dug up for the same purpose; some twice or thrice 
they are weeded, and succoured from their ille- 
gitimate Leaves that would be peeping out from 
the body of the Stalk. They top the several 
Plants as they find occasion in their predominat- 
ing rankness: About the middle of September they 
cut the Tobacco down, and carry it into houses, 
(made for that purpose) to bring it to its purity : 
And after it has attained, by a convenient atten- 
dance upon time, to its perfection, it is then tyed 

-69- 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

up in bundles, and packt into Hogs-heads, and 
then laid by for the Trade. 

Between Noremhcr and Jnnuarii there arrives in 
this Province Shipping to the number of twenty 
sail and upwards, * all Merchant-men loaden with 
Commodities to Trafique and dispose of, trucking 
with the Planter for Silks, Hollands, Serges, and 
Broad -clothes, with other necessary Goods, priz'd 
at such and such rates as shall be judg'd on is 
fair and legal, for Tobacco at so much the pound, 
and advantage on both sides considered; the 
Planter for his work, and the Merchant for adven- 
turing himself and his Commodity into so far a 
Country : Thus is the Trade on both sides drove 
on with a fair and honest Decani m. 

The Inhabitants of this Province are seldom or 
never put to the affrightment of being robb'd of 
their money, nor to dirty their Fingers by telling 
of vast sums : They have more bags to carry Corn, 
then Coyn ; and though they want, but why should 
I call that a want which is only a necessary miss? 
the very effects of the dirt of this Province affords 
as great a profit to the general Inhabitant, as the 
Gold of Peril doth to the straight-breecht Com- 
monalty of the Spaniard.j- 

* By the middle of the next century about fifty vessels were owned 
by the inhabitants of the province. 

tin the year 1729 the governor of the province had a decidedly 
different opinion, for in that year he wrote: " When our tobacco is 
sold at home, whatever is the product, it returns to us not iu money, 

— 70 — 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

Our Shops and Exchanges of Marij-LcDid, are 
the Merchants Store-houses, where with few 
words and protestations Goods are bought and 
delivered; not like those Shop-keepers Boys in 
London, that continually cry, What do ye lack Sir? 
IV/iai d)je bnij r' yelping with so wide a mouth, as 
if some Apothecary had hired their mouths to 
stand open to catch Gnats and Vagabond Flyes in. 

Tobacco is the currant Coyn of Mary-Land, and 
will sooner purchase Commodities from the Mer- 
chant, then money.* I must confess the New- 
England men that trade into this Province, had 
rather have fat Pork for their Goods, then Tobacco 
or Furrs,f which I conceive is, because their 
bodies being fast bound up with the cords of 
restringent Zeal, they are fain to make use of the 
lineaments of this Non-Canaanite creature physic- 
ally to loosen them; tor a bit of a pound upon a 
two-peny Rye loaf, according to the original 

but is either converted into apparel, tools, or other conveniences of 
life, or else remains there as it were dead to us ; for where the staple 
of a country upon foreign sales yields no return of mone}' to circu- 
late in such a country, the want of such a circulation must leave it 
almost inanimate: it is like a dead palsie on the public." — Calvert 
Papers, No. 2, p. 69, et seq. 

* Tobacco, with the exception of a little Spanish and copper coin, 
was almost the sole currency of the province until the year 1733, 
when ninety thousand pounds in paper was issued. Fifteen years 
later the credit of this became good, more such issues followed, 
and by the close of the colonial era tobacco, as a currency, was 
nearly displaced by paper. 

t A century later New England's chief import from Maryland was 
grain. 

— 71 — 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

Receipt, will bring the costiv'st red-ear' d Zealot 
in some three hours time to a fine stool, if method- 
ically observed. 

Jf(?f/er« -Wines, Sugars, Salt, Wickar- Chairs, 
and Tin Candlesticks, is the most ol the Commod- 
ities they bring in: They arrive in Mary -Land 
about September, being most of them Ketches and 
Barkes, and such small Vessels, and those dispers- 
ing themselves into several small Creeks of this 
Province, to sell and dispose of their Commodities, 
where they know the Market is most fit for their 
small Adventures. 

Barbadoes, together with the several adjacent 
Islands, has much Provision yearly from this 
Province: And though these Sun-hnrnt P ha eto us 
think to outvye Mary-Land in their Silks and 
Puffs, daily speaking against her whom their 
necessities makes them beholding to, and like so 
many Don Diegos that becackt Pauls, cock their 
Felts and look big upon't; yet if a man could go 
down into their internals, and see how it fares 
with them there, I believe he would hardly find 
any other Spirit to buoy them up, then the ill- 
visaged Ghost of want, that continually wanders 
from gut to gut to feed upon the undigested 
rynes of Potatoes. 

Trafique is Earth's great Atlas^ that supports 
The pay of Armies, and the height of Courts, 

— 72 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

And snakes Mechanicks live, that else would die 
Meer starving Martyrs to their penury : 
None but the Merchant of this thing can boast, 
He, like the Bee, comes loaden from each Coast, 
And to all Kingdoms, as within a Hive, 
Stoics up those Riches that doth make them thrive: 
Be thrifty, Mary-Land^ keep what thou hast in store. 
And each years Trafique to thy self get more. 



— 73 



A Relation of the Customs^ Mannerpi, Absurdities, and 

Religion of the Susquelianock Indians /// and 

near Mary -Land.* 

AS the diversities of Languages (since Babels 
confusion) has made the distinction between 
people and people, in this Christendompart of the 
world; so are they distinguished Nation from 
Nation, by the diversities and confusion of their 
Speech and Languages here in America: And as 
every Nation differs in their Laws, Manners and 
Customs, in Eurojje, Asia and Africa, so do they 
the very same here; That it would be a most intri- 
cate and laborious trouble, to run (with a descrip- 
tion) through the several Nations of Indians here 
in Anterictf, considering the innumerableness and 
diversities of them that dwell on this vast and 
unmeasured Continent: But rather then I'le be 
altogether silent, I shall do like the Painter in the 
Comedy, who being to limne out the Pourtraiture 
of the Furies, as they severally appeared, set him- 
self behind a Pillar, and between fright and 
amazement, drew them by guess. Those Indians 

* It was with these Indians (also called Minqua, Andastes, or 
Gandastogues and Conestogas) that Maryland had most to d<>. 
Because of their fear of them the Yaocomicos, in 1634, welcomed 
the arrival of Lord Baltimore's colonists, and readily gave up their 
land to them as they were about to seek a safer home elsewhere. 
Then, after the Susquehannas had given the Maryland colonists only 
a little trouble, they joined with them in treaties of mutual assis- 
tance and defense against the Senecas, Cayugas, and others. 

— 75 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 



that I have convers'd withall here in this Province 
of Mary-Land, and have had any occular experi- 
mental view of either of their Customs, Manners, 
Religions, and Absurdities, are called by the name 
of Susquehanocks, being a people lookt upon by the 
Christian Inhabitants, as the most Noble and 
Heroick Nation of Lndians that dwell upon the 
confines of America; also are so allowed and lookt 
upon by the rest of the Lndians, by a submissive 
and tributary acknowledgement; being a people 
cast into the mould of a most large and Warlike 
deportment, the men being for the most part seven 
foot high in latitude, and in magnitude and bulk 
suitable to so high a pitch ; their voyce large and 
hollow, as ascending out of a Cave, their gate and 
behavior strait, stately and majestick, treading 
on the Earth with as much pride, contempt, and 
disdain to so sordid a Center, as can be imagined 
from a creature derived from the same mould and 
Earth. 

Their bodies are cloth' d with no other Armour 
to defend them from the nipping frosts of a be- 
numbing Winter, or the penetrating and scorching 
influence of the Sun in a hot Summer, then what 
Nature gave them when they parted with the dark 
receptacle of their mothers womb. They go Men, 
Women and Children, all naked, only where 
shame leads them by a natural instinct to be 
reservedly modest, there they become cover' d. 

-76- 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 



The formality of Jezahels artifitdal Glory is much 
courted and followed by these Indiam, only in 
matter of colours (I conceive) they differ. 

The Indians paint upon their faces one stroke of 
red, another of green, another of white, and 
another of black, so that when they have accom- 
plished the Equipage of their Countenance in 
this trim, they are the only Hieroglyphicks and 
Representatives of the Furies. Their skins are 
naturally white, but altered from their originals 
by the several dyings of Roots and Barks, that 
they prepare and make useful to metamorphize 
their hydes into a dark Cinamon brown. The 
hair of their head is black, long and harsh, but 
where Nature hath appointed the situation of it 
any where else, they divert it (by an antient cus- 
tom) from its growth, by pulling it up hair by hair 
by the root in its primitive appearance. Several 
of them wear divers impressions on their breasts 
and armee, as the picture of the Devil, Bears, 
Tigers, and Panthers, which are imprinted on 
their several lineaments with much difficulty and 
pain, with an irrevocable determination of its 
abiding there: And this they count a badge of 
Heroick Valour, and the only Ornament due to 

their Heroes. 

These Susquehanock Indians are for the most 
part great Warriours, and seldom sleep one Sum- 
mer in the quiet armes of a peaceable Rest, but 



77 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

keep (by their present Power, as well as by their 
former Conquest) the several Nations of ludiavs 
round about them, in a forceable obedience and 
subjection. 

Their Government is wrapt up in so various and 
intricate a Laborynth, that the speculativ' st Artist 
in the whole World, with his artificial and natural 
Opticks, cannot see into the rule or sway of these 
Indians, to distinguish what name of Government 
to call them by; though Piirchas * in his Pereyrina- 
tion between London and Essex, (which he calls the 
whole World) will undertake (forsooth) to make a 
Monarchy of them, but if he had said Anarchy, 
his word would have pass'd with a better belief. 
All that ever I could observe in them as to this 
matter is, that he that is most cruelly Valorous, 
is accounted the most Noble : Here is very seldom 
any creeping from a Country Farm, into a Courtly 
Gallantry, by a sum of money; nor feeing the 
Heralds to put Daggers and Pistols into their 
Armes, to make the ignorant believe that they 
are lineally descended from the house of the Wars 
and Conquests ; he that fights best carries it here. 

When they determine to go upon some Design 
that will and doth require a Consideration, some 
six of them get into a corner, and sit in Juncto ; 
and if thought fit, their business is made popular, 

*Alsop was not competent to criticise Purchas \vhose volumes 
are highly prized by students of our early history, 

-78- 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

and immediately put into action; if not, they 
make a full stop to it, and are silently reserv'd. 

The Warlike Equipage they put themselves in 
when they prepare for Belona's March, is with 
their faces, armes, and breasts confusedly painted, 
their hair greazed with Bears oyl, and stuck thick 
with Swans Feathers, with a wreath or Diadem 
of black and white Beads upon their heads, a 
small Hatchet, instead of a Cymetre, stuck in 
their girts behind them, and either with Guns, or 
Bows and Arrows. In this posture and dress they 
march out from their Fort, or dwelling, to the 
number of Forty in a Troop, singing (or rather 
howling out) the Decades or Warlike exploits of 
their Ancestors, ranging the wide Woods untill 
their fury has met with an Enemy worthy of their 
Revenge. What Prisoners fall into their hands 
by the destiny of War, they treat them very civilly 
while they remain with them abroad, but when 
they once return homewards, they then begin to 
dress them in the habit for death, putting on 
their heads and armes wreaths of Beads, greazing 
their hair with fat, some going before, and the 
rest behind, at equal distance from their Prisoners, 
bellowing in a strange and confused manner, 
which is a true presage and fore-runner of destruc- 
tion to their then conquered Enemy. 

In this manner of march they continue till they 
have brought them to their Barken City, where 

— 79 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

they deliver them up to those that in cruelty will 
execute them, without either the legal Judgement 
of a Council of War, or the benefit of their Clergy 
at the Common Law. The common and usual 
deaths they put their Prisoners to, is to bind them 
to stakes, making a fire some distance from them ; 
then one or other of them, whose Genius delights in 
the art of Paganish dissection, with a sharp knife 
or flint cuts the Cutis or outermost skin of the 
brow so deep, untill their nails, or rather Talons, 
can fasten themselves firm and secure in, then 
(with a most rigid jerk) disrobeth the head of skin 
and hair at one pull, leaving the skull almost as 
bare as those Monumental Skelitons at Chyrur- 
gions-Hall ; but for fear they should get cold by 
leaving so warm and customary a Cap off, they 
immediately apply to the skull a Cataplasm of 
hot Embers to keep their Pericranium warm. 
While they are thus acting this cruelty on their 
heads, several others are preparing pieces of Iron, 
and barrels of old Guns, which they make red 
hot, to sear each part and lineament of their 
bodies, which they perform and act in a most 
cruel and barbarous manner: And while they are 
thus in the midst of their torments and execrable 
usage, some tearing their skin and hair of their 
head off by violence, others searing their bodies 
with hot irons, some are cutting their flesh off, 
and eating it before their eyes raw while they are 

— 80 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

alive; yet all this and much more never makes 
them lower the Top-gallant sail of their Heroick 
courage, to beg with a submissive Repentance any 
indulgent favour from their persecuting Enemies ; 
but with an undaunted contempt to their cruelty, 
eye it with so slight and mean a respect, as if it 
were below them to value what they did, they 
courageously (while breath doth libertize them) 
sing the summary of their Warlike Atchievements. 

Now after this cruelty has brought their tor- 
mented lives to a period, they immediately fall to 
butchering of them into parts, distributing the 
several pieces amongst the Sons of War, to intomb 
the mines of their deceased Conquest in no other 
Sepulchre then their unsanctified maws; which 
they with more appetite and desire do eat and 
digest, then if the best of foods should court their 
stomachs to participate of the most restorative 
Banquet. Yet though they now and then feed 
upon the Carkesses of their Enemies, this is not a 
common dyet, but only a particular dish for the 
better sort ; for there is not a Beast that runs in 
the Woods of Am&n'ca, but if they can by any 
means come at him, without any scruple of Con- 
science they'le fall too (without saying Grace) 
with a devouring greediness. 

As for their Religion, together with their Rites 
and Ceremonies, they are so absurd and ridicu- 
lous, that its almost a sin to name them. They 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

own no other Deity then the Devil, (solid or pro- 
found) but with a kind of a wilde imaginary 
conjecture, they suppose from their groundless 
conceits, that the World had a Maker, but where 
he is that made it, or whether he be living to this 
day, they know not. The Devil, as I said before, 
is all the God they own or worship; and that 
more out of a slavish fear then any real Reverence 
to his Infernal or Diabolical greatness, he forcing 
them to their Obedience by his rough and rigid 
dealing with them, often appearing visibly among 
them to their terrour, bastinadoing them (with 
cruel menaces) even unto death, and burning 
their Fields of Corn and houses, that the relation 
thereof makes them tremble themselves when they 
tell it. 

Once in four years they Sacrifice a Childe to 
him, in an acknowledgement of their firm obedi- 
ence to all his Devillish powers, and Hellish 
commands. The Priests to whom they apply 
themselves in matters of importance and greatest 
distress, are like those that attended upon the 
Oracle at Delphos, who by their Magic-spells could 
command a pro or con from the Devil when they 
pleas' d. These Indians oft-times raise great Tem- 
pests when they have any weighty matter or 
design in hand, and by blustering storms inquire 
of their Infernal God (the Devil) Hoic niaffers shall 
go ivith them either in publick or private. 

— 82 — 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 



When any among them depart this life, they 
give him no other intombment, then to set him 
upright upon his breech in a hole dug in the Earth 
some five foot long, and three foot deep, covered 
over with the Bark of Trees Arch-wise, with his 
face Du-West, only leaving a hole half a foot 
square open. They dress him in the same Equip- 
age and Gallantry that he used to be trim'd in 
when he was alive, and so bury him (if a Soldier) 
with his Bows, Arrows, and Target, together with 
all the rest of his implements and weapons of War, 
with a Kettle of Broth, and Corn standing before 
him, lest he should meet with bad quarters in his 
way. His Kinred and Relations follow him to 
the Grave, sheath' d in Bear skins for close mourn- 
ing, with the tayl droyling on the ground, in 
imitation of our English Solemners, that think 
there's nothing like a tayl a Degree in length, to 
follow the dead Corpse to the Grave with. Here 
if that snuffling Prolocutor, that waits upon the 
dead Monuments of the Tombs at Westminster, 
with his white Rod were there, he might walk 
from Tomb to Tomb with his, Here lies the Duke of 
Ferrara and his Dutchess, and never find any decay- 
ing vacation, unless it were in the moldering 
Consumption of his own Lungs. They bury all 
within the wall or Pallisado'd impalement of their 
City, or Connadayo as they call it. Their houses 
are low and long, built with the Bark of 

-83-. 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

Trees Arch -wise, standing thick and confusedly 
together. They are situated a hundred and odd 
miles distant from the Christian Plantations of 
Mary-Land, at the head of a River that runs into 
the Bay of Chcesapike, called by their own name 
The Susquehanock River, where they remain and 
inhabit most part of the Summer time, and seldom 
remove far from it, unless it be to subdue any 
Forreign Rebellion. 

About November the best Hunters draw off to 
several remote places of the Woods, where they 
know the Deer, Bear, and Elke useth ; there they 
build them several Cottages, which they call their 
Winter- quarter, where they remain for the space 
of three months, untill they have killed up a suffi- 
ciency of Provisions to supply their Families with 
in the Summer. 

The Women are the Butchers, Cooks, and Tillers 
of the ground, the Men think it below the honour 
of a Masculine, to stoop to any thing but that 
which their Gun, or Bow and Arrows can com- 
mand. The Men kill the several Beasts which 
they meet withall in the Woods, and the Women 
are the Pack horses to fetch it in upon their backs, 
fleying and dressing the hydes, (as well as the 
flesh for provision) to make them fit for Trading, 
and which are brought down to the Efu/Iish at 
several seasons in the year, to truck and dispose 
of them for course Blankets, Guns, Powder, and 

-84- 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

Lead, Beads, small Looking-glasses, Knives, and 
Razors. 

I never observed all the while 1 was amongst 
these naked Inc/irois, that ever the Women wore 
the Breeches, or dared either in look or action pre- 
dominate over the Men. They are very constant 
to their Wives ; and let this be spoken to their 
Heathenish praise, that did they not alter their 
bodies by their dyings, paintings, and cutting 
themselves, marring those Excellencies that 
Nature bestowed upon them in their original 
conceptions and birth, there would be as amiable 
beauties amongst them, as any Alexandria could 
afford, when Mark Anthont/ and Cleopatra dwelt 
there together. Their Marriages are short and 
authentique; for after 'tis resolv'd upon by both 
parties, the Woman sends her intended Husband 
a Kettle of boyl'd Venison, or Bear; and he 
returns in lieu thereof Beaver or Otters Skins, 
and so their Nuptial Rites are concluded without 
other Ceremony. 

Before 1 bring my Heathenish Story to a period, 
I have one thing worthy your observation : For as 
our Grammar Rules have it, Non decet quenqtiam min- 
gere currentem aut mandantem: It doth not become 
any man to piss running or eating. These Pagan 
men naturally observe the same Rule; for they 
are so far from running, that like a Hare, they 
squat to the ground as low as they can, while the 

— 85 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

Women stand bolt upright with their armes a 
Kimbo, performing the same action, in so confi- 
dent and obscene a posture, as if they had taken 
their Degrees of Entrance at Venice, and com- 
menced Bawds of Art at Legorne. 



86 — 



A Collection of some Letters that were written lnj the 

same Author, most of them in the 

time of his Servitude. 

To my much Honored Friend Mr. T. B. 
SIR, 

I Have lived with sorrow to see the Anointed of 
the Lord tore from his Throne by the hands 
of Paricides, and in contempt haled, in the view 
of God, Angels and Men, upon a public Theatre, 
and there murthered. I have seen the sacred 
Temple of the Almighty, in scorn by Schism aticks 
made the Receptacle of Theeves and Robbers ; and 
those Religious Prayers, that in devotion Evening 
and Morning were offered up as a Sacrifice to our 
God, rent by Sacrilegious hands, and made no 
other use of, then sold to Brothel -houses to light 
Tobacco with. 

Who then can stay, or will, to see things of so 
great weight steer' d by such barbarous Hounds as 
these : First, were there an Egypt to go down to, 
I would involve my Liberty to them, upon condi- 
tion ne'er more to see my Country. What? live 
in silence under the sway of such base actions, is 
to give consent; and though the lowness of my 
present Estate and Condition, with the hazard I 
put my future dayes upon, might plead a just 
excuse for me to stay at home; but Heavens 

— 87- 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

forbid: Tie rather serve in Chains, and draw the 
Plough with Animals, till death shall stop and 
say. It is enough. Sir, if you stay behind, 1 wish 
you well: I am bound iov Mai-y-Land, this day 1 
have made some entrance into my intended voy- 
age, and when I have done more, you shall know 
of it. 1 have here inclosed what you of me 
desired, but truly trouble, discontent and busi- 
ness, have so amazed my senses, that what to 
write, or where to write, I conceive my self almost 
as uncapable as he that never did write. What 
you'le find will be Ex tempore, without the use of 
premeditation ; and though there may want some- 
thing of a flourishing stile to dress them forth, 
yet I'm certain there wants nothing of truth, will, 
and desire. 

Heavens bright Lamp, shine forth some of thy Light, 
But just so long to paint this dismal Night; 
Then draw thy beams, and hide thy glorious face, 
From the dark sable actions of this places- 
Leaving these lustful Sodomites groping still. 
To satisfie each dark unsatiate ivill, 
Untill at length the crimes that they commit, 
May sink them doivn to Hells hifernal pit. 
Base and degenerate Earth, how dost thou lye, 
That all that pass hiss, at thy Treachery ? 
Thou which couldsf boast once of thy King and Crown, 
By base Mechanicks now art tumbled doivn. 
Brewers and Coblers^ that have scarce an Eye, 

— 88 — 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

Walk hand in hand in thy Supremacy; 
And all those Courts where Majesty did Throne, 
Are now the Seats for Oliver and Joan: 
Persons of Honour, which did before inherit 
Their glorious Titles from deserved merit, 
Are all grown silent, and with wonder gaze, 
To view such Slaves drest in their Courtly rayes; 
To see a Drayman that knows nought but Yeast, 
Set in a Throne like Babylons red Beast, 
While heaps of Parasites do idolize 
This red-nos'd Bell, with fawning Sacrifice. 
What can we say ? our King they^ve Murthered, 
And those well born, are basely buried: 
Nobles are slain, and Royalists in each street 
Are scorned, and kicked by most men that they meet: 
Religion's banisht, and Heresie survives, 
And none but Conventicks in this Age thrives. 
Oh could those Romans /rom their Ashes rise. 
That liv'd in Nero's time: Oh how their cries 
Would our perfidious Island shake, nay rend. 
With clamorous screaks unto the Heaven send: 
Oh how they'd blush to see our Crimson crimes. 
And know the Subjects Authors of these times: 
When as the Peasant he shall take his King, 
And without cause shall fall a murthering him; 
And when that's done, with Pride assume the Chair, 
And 'NimTod-like, himself to heaven 7'ear; 
Command the People, make the Land Obey 
His baser will, and sivear to ivhat he'l say. 

-89- 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

Sure, sure our God has not these evils sent 
To 'please himself, hut for mans punishment: 
And when he shall from our dark sable Skies 
Withdraw these Clouds, and let our Sun ar^ise, 
Our dayes ivill surely then in Glory shine, 
Both in our Temporal, and our State divine: 
May this come quickly, though I may never see 
This glorious day, yet I would sympathie, 
And feel a joy run through each vain of blood, 
Though Vassalled on t'other side the Floud. 
Heavens protect his Sacred Majesty, 
From secret Plots, & treacherous Villany. 
And that those Slaves that now predominate. 
Hanged and destroyed may be their best of Fate; 
And though Great Cliaiies be distant from his onm, 
Heaven I hope tvill seat him on his Throne. 

Vale. 
Yours what I may, 
G. A. 

From the Chimney-corner upon a 
low Cricket, where I writ this in 
the noise of some six Women, 
Aug. 19. Anno 



To my Honoured Father, at his House. 
SIR, 

BEfore 1 dare bid Adieu to the old World, or 
shake hands with my native Soyl for ever, 1 
have a Conscience inwards tells me, that 1 must 

— 90 — 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

oif«r up the remains of tliat Obedience of mine, 
that lyes close centered within the cave of my 
Soul, at the Alter, of your paternal Love: And 
though this Sacrifice of mine may shew something 
low and thread-bare, (at this time) yet know. 
That in the Zenith of all actions. Obedience is 
that great wheel that moves the lesser in their 
circular motion. 

I am now entring for some time to dwell under 
the Government of Neptune, a Monarchy that 1 
was never manured to live under, nor to con- 
verse with in his dreadful Aspect, neither do 
1 know how 1 shall bear with his rough de-' 
mands; but that God has carried me through 
those many gusts a shoar, which 1 have 
met withall in the several voyages of my life, I 
hope will Pilot me safely to my desired Port, 
through the worst of Storm es 1 shall meet with- 
all at Sea. 

We have strange, and yet good news aboard, 
that he whose vast mind could not be contented 
with spacious Territories to stretch his insatiate 
desires on, is (by an Almighty power) banished 
from his usurped Throne to dwell among the dead. 
I no sooner heard of it, but my melancholly Muse 
forced me upon this ensuing Distich. 

Poor vaunting Earth, glossal with uncertain Pride, 
That lir'd in Pomp, yet ivorse then others dy'd: 



91 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

Who shall blow fofih a Trumpet to thy praise? 
Or call thy sable Actions shining Rayes ? 
Such Lights as those blaze forth the vertues dead, 
And make them live, though they are buried. 
Thou'rt gone, and to thy memory let be said, 
There lies that Oliver u-hiclt of old betray'd 
His King and Master, and after did assume, 
With sivelling Pride, to govern in his room. 
Here He rest satisfied, Scriptures expound to me, 
Tophet was made for such Supremacy. 

The death of this great Kebel (I hope » will prove 
an Omen to presage destruction on the rest. The 
World's in a heap of troubles and confusion, and 
while they are in the midst of their changes and 
amazes, the best way to give them the bag, is to 
go out of the World and leave them. 1 am now 
bound for Mary-La )/d, and I am told that's a New 
World, but if it prove no better than this, 1 shall 
not get much by my change; but before I'le 
revoke my Resolution, I am resolv'd to put it to 
adventure, for 1 think it can hardly be worse 
then this is: Thus committing you into the hands 
of that God that made you, 1 rest 

Your Obedient Son, 

G.A. 

From aboard a Ship at Gra7/es- 
end, Sept. 7th. Anno 



— 92 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

To my Brother. 

I Leave you very near in the same condition ay 
1 am in my self, only here lies the difference, 
you were bound at Joyners Hall in LonrloH Ap- 
prentice-wise, and 1 conditionally at Navigators 
Hall, that now rides at an Anchor at Graresend; 
I hope you will allow me to live in the largest 
Mayordom, by reason 1 am the eldest: None but 
the main Continent of America will serve me for a 
Corporation to inhabit in now, though 1 am 
affraid for all that, that the reins of my Liberty 
will be something shorter then yours will be in 
London : But as to that, what Destiny has ordered 
1 am resolved with an adventerous Resolution to 
subscribe to, and with a contented imbracement 
enjoy it. 1 would fain have seen you once more 
in this Old World, before 1 go into the New, 1 
know you have a chain about your Leg, as well 
as 1 have a clog about my Neck: If you can't 
come, send a line or two, if not, wish me well at 
least : 1 have one thing to charge home upon you, 
and 1 hope you will take my counsel. That you 
have alwayes an obedient Respect and Reverence 
to your aged Parents, that while they live they 
may have comfort of you, and when that God 
shall sound a retreat to their lives, that there 
they may with their gray hairs in joy go down to 
their Graves. 

Thus concluding, wishing you a comfortable 

— 93 — 



A L S O P ' S M A R Y L A N D 

Servitude, a prosperous Life, and the assurance of 
a happy departure in the immutable love of him 
that made you, Vale. 

Your Brother, 
G. A. 

From Gravesend, Sept. 7. Anno 



To my much Honored Friend Mr. T. B. at his House. 

I Am got ashoar with much ado, and it is very 
well it is as it is, for if 1 had stayed a little 
longer, I had certainly been a Creature of the 
Water, for I had hardly flesh enough to carry me 
to Land, not that I wanted for any thing that the 
Ship could afford me in reason : But oh the great 
bowls of Pease-porridge that appeared in sight 
every day about the hour twelve, ingulfed the 
senses of my Appetite so, with the restringent 
quality of the Salt Beef, upon the internal Inhab- 
itants of my belly, that a Galenist for some dayes 
after my arrival, with his Bag-pipes of Physical 
operations, could hardly make my Puddings dance 
in any methodical order. 

But to set by these things that happened unto 
me at Sea, I am now upon Land; and there I'le 
keep my self if I can, and for four years I am 
pretty sure of my restraint; and had I known my 
yoak would have been so easie, (as I conceive it 
will) I would have been here long before now, 
rather then to have dwelt under the pressure of 

— 94 — 



A r S O P ' S M A R Y L A N D 

a RebelliouB and Trayterous Government so long 
as I did. I dwell now by providence in the Prov- 
ince of Mary -Land, (under the quiet Government 
of the Lord Baltemore) which Country abounds 
in a most glorious prosperity and plenty of all 
things. And though the Infancy of her situation 
might plead an excuse to those several imperfec- 
tions, (if she were guilty of any of them) which 
by scandalous and imaginary conjectures are 
falsly laid to her charge, and which she values 
with so little notice or perceivance of discontent, 
that she hardly alters her visage with a frown, to 
let them know she is angry with such a Rascality 
of people, that loves nothing better then their 
own sottish and abusive acclamations of baseness: 
To be short, the Country (so far forth as I have 
seen into it) is incomparable. 

Here is a sort of naked Inhabitants, or wilde 
people, that have for many ages I believe lived 
here in the Woods of Mary -Land, as well as in 
other parts of the Continent, before e' er it was by 
the Christian Discoverers found out; being a 
people strange to behold, as well in their looks, 
which by confused paintings makes them seem 
dreadful, as in their sterne and heroick gate and 
deportments; the Men are mighty tall and big 
limbed, the Women not altogether so large ; they 
are most of them very well featured, did not their 
wilde and ridiculous dresses alter their original 

— 95 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

excellencies: The men are great Warriours and 
Hunters, the Women ingenious and laborious 
Housewives. 

As to matter of their Worship, they own no 
other Deity then the Devil, and him more out of 
a slavish fear, then any real devotion, or willing 
acknowledgement to his Hellish power. They 
live in little small Bark-Cottages, in the remote 
parts of the Woods, killing and slaying the several 
Animals that they meet withall to make provision 
of, dressing their several Hydes and Skins to 
Trafique withall, when a conveniency of Trade 
presents. I would go on further, but like Doctor 
Case, * when he had not a word more to speak for 
himself, / a))^ aff'raid iny beloved I have kept you too 
/oi/fj. Now he that made you save you, Amen. 

Yours to command, 
G. A. 

From Mary-Land, Febr. 6. A/uio 

And not to forget Tow Forge I beseech you, tell 
him that my Love's the same towards him still, 
and as firm as it was about the overgrown Tryal, 
when Judgements upon Judgements, had not I 
stept in, would have pursued him untill the day 
of Judgement, rfr. 

* John Case, who died in the year i6oo, was a writer on Aristotle 
and a doctor of medicine. He had a high reputation as a disputant 
and, while engaged in reading logic and philosophy to young men, 
chiedy Roman Catholics, he ^^TOte and published several handbooks 
that were for a time popular. 

-96- 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 



To my Father at his House. 

SIR, 

AFter my Obedience (at so great and vast a 
distance) has humbly saluted you and my 
good Mother, with the cordialest of my prayers, 
wishes, and desires to wait upon you, with the 
very best of their effectual devotion, wishing from 
the very Center of my Soul your flourishing and 
well-being here upon Earth, and your glorious 
and everlasting happiness in the World to come. 
These lines (my dear Parents) come from that 
Son which by an irregular Fate was removed from 
his Native home, and after a five months danger- 
ous passage, was landed on the remote Continent 
of America, in the Province of Mary -Land, where 
now by providence I reside. To give you the 
particulars of the several accidents that happened 
in our Voyage by Sea, it would swell a Journal of 
some sheets, and therefore too large and tedious 
for a Letter: I think it therefore necessary to bind 
up the relation in Octavo, and give it you in 

short. 

We had a blowing and dangerous passage of it, 
and for some dayes after I arrived, I was an 
absolute Copernicus* it being one main point of 
my moral Creed, to believe the World had a pair 
of long legs, and walked with the burthen of the 

*At this time there were many who had not yet accepted the 
Copemican theory. 

— 97 — 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

Creation upon her back. For to tell you the very 
truth of it, for some dayes upon Land, after so 
long and tossing a passage, I was so giddy that I 
could hardly tread an even step ; so that all things 
both above and below (that was in view) appeared 
to me like the Kentish Britains to William the 
Conqueror, in a moving posture. 

Those few number of weeks since my arrival, 
has given me but little experience to write any 
thing large of the Country ; only thus much I can 
say, and that not from any imaginary conjectures, 
but from an occular observation. That this Coun- 
try of Marij-Land abounds in a flourishing variety 
of delightful Woods, pleasant Groves, lovely 
Springs, together with spacious Navigable Rivers 
and Creeks, it being a most healthful and pleasant 
situation, so far as my knowledge has yet had 
any view in it. 

Herds of Deer are as numerous in this Province 
of Mary-Land, as Cuckolds can be in London, only 
their horns are not so well drest and tipt with 
silver as theirs are. 

Here if the Devil had such a Vagary in his head 
as he had once among the Gadareans, he might 
drown a thousand head of Hogs and they'd ne're 
be miss'd, for the very Woods of this Province 
swarms with them. 

The Christian Inhabitant of this Province, as 
to the general, lives wonderful well and con- 

-98- 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 



tented: The Groveniment of this Province iis by 
the loyahiess of the people, and loving demeanor 
of the Proprietor and Governor of the same, kept 
in a continued peace and unity. 

The Servant of this Province, which are stig- 
matiz'd for Slaves by the clappermouth jaws of 
the vulgar in England, live more like Freemen 
then the most Mechanick Apprentices in London, 
wanting for nothing that is convenient and neces- 
sary, and according to their several capacities, 
are extraordinary well used and respected. So 
leaving things here as I found them, and lest I 
should commit Sacriledge upon your more serious 
meditations, with the Tautologies of a long- 
winded Letter, I'le subscribe with a heavenly 
Ejaculation to the God of Mercy to preserve you 
now and for evermore, Amen. 

Your Ohedieni Son, 
G, A. 

Yxom. Ma7'y-Land, Jan. 17. Anno 



To my much Honored Friend Mr. M. F. 
SIR, 

YOu writ to me when 1 was at Gravesend, (but 
1 had no conveniency to send you an answer 
till now) enjoyning me, if possible, to give you a 
just Information by my diligent observance, what 
thing were best and most profitable to send into 
this Country for a commodious Trafique. 

— 99 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

Sir, The enclosed will demonstrate unto you 
both particularly and at large, to the full satisfac- 
tion of your desire, it being an Invoyce drawn as 
exact to the business you imployed me upon, as 
my weak capacity could extend to. 

Sir, If you send any Adventure to this Prov- 
ince, let me beg to give you this advice in it; 
That the Factor whom you imploy be a man of a 
Brain, otherwise the Planter will go near to make 
a Skimming-dish of his Skull : I know your 
(renins can interpret my meaning. The people of 
this place (whether the saltness of the Ocean gave 
them any alteration when they went over first, 
or their continual dwelling under the remote 
Clyme where they now inhabit, I know not) are 
a more acute people in general, in matters of 
Trade and Commerce, then in any other place of 
the World; and by their crafty and sure bargain- 
ing, do often over-reach the raw and unexperi- 
enced Merchant. To be short, he that undertakes 
Merchants imployment for Mari/-Land, must have 
more of Knave in him then Fool; he must not be 
a windling piece of Formality, that will lose his 
Imployers Goods for Conscience sake; nor a flashy 
piece of Prodigality, that will give his Merchants 
fine Hollands, Laces, and Silks, to purchase the 
benevolence of a Female : But he must be a man 
of solid confidence, carrying alwayes in his looks 
the Effigies of an Execution upon Command, if 

— lOO — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

he supposes a baffle or denyal of payment, where 
a debt for his Imployer is legally due. 

S}}\ I had like almost to forgot to tell you in 
what part of the World I am: I dwell by provi- 
dence Servant to Mr. T/i on/as Stocket, in the County 
of Baltemore, within the Province of Manj-Lrmd, 
under the Government of the Lord Baltemore, 
being a Country abounding with the variety and 
diversity of all that is or may be rare. But lest I 
should Tantalize you with a relation of that 
which is very unlikely of your enjoying, by reason 
of that strong Antipathy you have ever had 
'gainst Travel, as to your own particular: I'le 
only tell you, that Mary-Land is seated within the 
large extending armes of America, between the 
Degrees of 36 and 38, being in Longitude from 
England eleven hundred and odd Leagues. 

Vale. 
G.A. 

From Afarj'-Land, /an. i-j. Anno 



To my Honored Friend Mr. T. B. at his House. 
SIR, 

YOurs I received, wherein I find my self much 
obliged to you for your good opinion of me, 
I return you millions of thanks. 

Sir, you wish me well, and I pray God as well 
that those wishes may light upon me, and then I 
question not but all will do well. Those Pictures 

— lOI — 



A L S O P ' S M A R y L A N D 

you sent sewed up in a Pastboard, with a Letter 
tacked on the outside, you make no mention at 
all what should be done with them : If they are 
Saints, unless 1 knew their names, I could make 
no use of them. Pray in your next let me know 
what they are, for my fingers itch to be doing 
with them one way or another. Our Government 
here hath had a small fit of a Rebellious Quoti- 
dian, but five Grains of the powder of Subvert - 
ment has qualified it.* Pray be larger in your 
next how things stand in EnglaiuJ : 1 understand 
His Majesty is return' d with Honour, and seated 
in the hereditary Throne of his Father; God bless 
him from Tray tors, and the Church from Sacri- 
legious Schisms, and you as a loyal Subject to the 
one, and a true Member to the other ; while you 
so continue, the God of order, peace and tran- 
quility, bless and preserve you, Amen. 

Vale. 
Your veal Friend^ 
G. A. 

From Mary-Land, Febr. 20. Anno 



To niji Honored Father (d his Hoi(.sf\ 

SIR, 
\T\ Tlth a twofold unmeasurable joy I received 
V V your Letter: First, in the consideration 
of Gods great Mercy to you in particular, (though 

* This was the Fendall rebellion. Governor Kendall declared it 
— 102 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

weak and aged) yet to give you dayes among the 
living. Next, that his now most Excellent Majesty 
Chnyles the Second, is by the omnipotent Provi- 
dence of God, seated in the Throne of his Father. 
I hope that God that has placed him there, will 
give him a heart to praise and magnifie his name 
for ever, and a hand of just Revenge, to punish the 
murthering and rebellious Outrages of those Sons 
of shame and Apostacy, that Usurped the Throne 
of his Sacred Honour. Near about the time I 
received your Letter, (or a little before) here 
sprang up in this Province of Mary-Land a kind 
of pigmie Rebellion: A company of weak-witted 
men, which thought to have traced the steps of 
Oliver in Rebellion. They began to be mighty 
stiff and hidebound in their proceedings, clothing 
themselves with the flashy pretences of future and 
imaginary honour, and (had they not been sud- 
denly quell' d) they might have done so much 
mischief (for aught 1 know) that nothing but 
utter mine could have ransomed their headlong 
follies. 

His Majesty appearing in England, he quickly 
(by the splendor of his Rayes) thawed the stiffness 
of their frozen and slippery intentions. All things 

to be his belief that by the Maryland charter King Charles I. had 
intended to give the freemen, or their deputies, full power to make 
and enact laws without the lord proprietor's assent. Upon hearing 
of this the proprietor made his brother Philip governor, and Fendall 
had not a sufficient following to offer any resistance. 

— 103 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

(blessed be God for it) are at peace and unity here 
now: And as Luther being asked once, What he 
thought of some small Opinions that started up in 
his time? answered, That he thought them to be good 
honest people, exempting their error: So 1 judge of 
these men, That their thoughts were not so bad 
at first, as their actions would have led them into 
in process of time. 

1 have here enclosed sent you something wi'itten 
in haste upon the Kings coming to the enjoyment 
of his Throne, with a reflection upon the former 
sad and bad times ; I have done them as well as I 
could, considering all things: If they are not so 
well as they should be, all I can do is to wish 
them better for your sakes. My Obedience to you 
and my Mother alwayes devoted. 

Your Son 
G. A. 

From Mary- Land, Febr. g. Anno 



To mij Cosen Mris. Ellinor Evins. 

E' re I forget the Zenith of your Love, 

L et me be banisht from the Thrones above; 

L ight let me never see, ivhen I grow rude, 

I ntomb your Love in base Ingratitude: 

N or may I prosper, but the state 

O / gaping Tantalus be my fate; 

R ather then I should thus preposterous grow, 

— 104 — 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 



E (uih would condemn me to her vaiilfs below. 
V ertuous and Noble, could my Genius raise 
I mmortal Anthems to your Vestal praise, 
N one should he more lahorimis then I, 
S aiitf-like to Canonize you to the Sky. 
The Antimonial Cup (dear Cosen) you sent me, 
I had; and as soon as I received it, I went to 
work with the Infirmities and Diseases of my 
body. At the first draught, it made such havock 
among the several humors that had stoln into 
my body, that like a Conjurer in a room among a 
company of little Devils, they no sooner hear him 
begin to speak high words, but away they pack, 
and happy is he that can get out first, some up the 
Chimney, and the rest down stairs, till they are all 
disperst. So those malignant humors of my body, 
feeling the operative power, and medicinal virtue of 
this Cup, were so amazed at their sudden surprizal, 
(being alwayes before battered only by the weak 
assaults of some few Emporicks) they stood not 
long to dispute, but with joynt consent made their 
retreat, some running through the sink of the 
Skullery, the rest climbing up my ribs, took my 
mouth for a Garret-window, and so leapt out. 

Cosen, For this great kindness of yours, in send- 
ing me this medicinal vertue, I return you my 
thanks : It came in a very good time, when I was 
dangerously sick, and by the assistance of God it 
hath perfectly recovered me. 

— 105 — 



A L S P ' S MARYLAND 

I have sent you here a few Furrs, they were all 
I could get at present, 1 humbly beg your accept- 
ance of them, as a pledge of my love and thank- 
fulness unto you ; I subscribe, 

Your loving Cosen, 
G. A. 

From Mary-Land, Dec. g. Anno 



To my Brother P. A. 
Brother, 

I Have made a shift to unloose my self from my 
Collar now as well as you, but I see at present 
either small pleasure or profit in it: What the 
futurality of my da yes will bring forth, I know 
not; For while I was linckt with the Chain of a 
restraining Servitude, I had all things cared for, 
and now I have all things to care for my self, 
which makes me almost to wish my self in for the 
other four years. 

Liberty without money, is like a man opprest 
with the Gout, every step he puts forward puts 
him to pain ; when on the other side, he that has 
Coyn with his Liberty, is like the swift Post- 
Messenger of the Gods, that wears wings at his 
heels, his motion being swift or slow, as he 
pleaseth. 

I received this year two Caps, the one white, of 
an honest plain countenance, the other purple, 
which I conceive to be some antient Monumental 

— io6 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 



Relique; wliioli of them you sent I know not, and 
it was a wonder how I should, for there was no 
mention in the Letter, more then, that my Brother 
had sent me a Cap: They were delivered me in the 
company of some Gentlemen that ingaged me to 
write a few lines upon the purple one, and because 
they were my Friends I could not deny them; 
and here I present them to you as they were 
written. 

Hailefrom the dead, or from Eternity, 

Thou Velvit Relique of Antiquity; 

Thou which appear'st here in thy purple heiv, 

TelVs how the dead within their Tombs do doe; 

How those Ghosts fare ivithin each Marble Cell, 

Where amongst them for Ages thou didst dwell 

What Brain didst cover there ? tell us that we 

Upon our knees vayle Hats to honour thee: 

And if no honour's due, tell us whose pate 

Thou basely coveredst, and we'l joijntly hate: 

LeVs knoiv his name, that we may shew neglect; 

If otherwise, ive'l kiss thee with respect. 

Say, didst thou cover Noll's old brazen head, 

Which on the top of Westminster high Lead 

Stands on a Pole, erected to the sky, 

As a grand Trophy to his memory. 

From his perfidious skull didst thou fall do mi, 

In a disdain to honour such a crown 

With three-pile Velvet? tell me, hadst thou thy fall 

— 107 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

From the high top of that Cathedral? 

None of the Heroes of the Roman stem, 

Wore ever such a fashion' d Diadem, 

Didst thou speak Turkish in thy unknown dress, 

Thou'dst cover Great Mogull, and no man less; 

But in thy make methinks thou'rt too too scant, 

To be so great a Monarches Turberant. 

The Jews by Moses suwar, they never kneir 

E're such a Cap drest up in Hebrew : 

Nor the strict Order of the Romish See, 

Wears any Cap that looks so base as thee; 

His Holiness hates thy Lowness, and instead, 

Wears Peters spired Steeple on his head: 

The Cardinals descent is much more fat, 

For ivant of name, baptized, is A Hat ; 

Through each strict Order has my fancy ran, 

Both Ambrose, Austin, and the Franciscan, 

Where I beheld rich Images of the dead, 

Yet scarce had one a Cap upon his head: 

Episcopacy irears Caps, but not like thee. 

Though several shaped, ivith much diversity: 

'Twere best I think I presently should gang 

To Edenburghs strict Presbyterian ; 

But Caps they'' ve none, their ears being made so large. 

Serves them to turn it like a Garnesey Barge; 

Those keep their skulls warm against North-west gusts, 

When they in Pulpit do poor Calvin curse. 

Thou art not Fortunatus, for I daily see. 

That which I wish is farthest off from me: 

— io8 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

Thy low-built state none ever did advance, 
To christen thee the Cap of Maintenance; 
Then till I knoir from whence thou didst derivCy 
Thou shall he call'd, the Cap of Fugitive. 

You writ to me this year to send you some 
Smoak; at that instant it made me wonder that a 
man of a rational Soul, having both his eyes 
(blessed be God) should make so unreasonable a 
demand, when he that has but one eye, nay he 
which has never a one, and is fain to make use of 
an Animal conductive for his optick guidance, 
cannot endure the prejudice that Smoak brings 
with it: But since you are resolv'd upon it, I'le 
dispute it no further. 

I have sent you that which will make Smoak, 
(namely Tobacco) though the Funk it self is so 
slippery that I could not send it, yet I have sent 
you the Substance from whence the Smoak 
derives: What use you imploy it to I know not, 
nor will I be too importunate to know; yet let me 
tell you this. That if you burn it in a room to 
affright the Devil from the house, you need not 
fear but it will work the same effect, as Tohi/es 
galls did upon the leacherous Fiend. No more at 
present. Vale. 

Your Brother, 
G.A. 

Prom Mary-Land, Dec. ii. Anno 



109 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 
To my Honored Friend Mr. T. B. 

sm, 

THis i8 the entrance upon my fifth year, and 
I fear 'twill prove the worst: I have been 
very much troubled with a throng of unruly Dis- 
tempers, that have (contrary to my expectation) 
crouded into the Main-guard of my body, when 
the drowsie Sentinels of my brain were a sleep. 
Where they got in I know not, but to my grief 
and terror I find them predominant : Yet as Doctor 
Dunne, sometimes Dean of St. Pauls, said, That 
the bodies diseases do but mellow a man for Heaven, 
and so ferments him in this World, as he shall need 
no long concoction in the Grave, but hasten to the 
Resurrection. And if this were weighed seriously 
in the Ballance of Religious Reason, the World 
we dwell in would not seem so inticing and 
bewitching as it doth. 

We are only sent by God of an Errand into this 
World, and the time that's allotted us for to stay, 
is only for an Answer. When God my great 
Master shall in good earnest call me home, which 
these warnings tell me I have not long to stay, I 
hope then I shall be able to give him a good 
account of my Message. 

Sir, My weakness gives a stop to my writing, 
my hand being so shakingly feeble, that 1 can 
hardly hold my pen any further then to tell you, 



1 lO 



A L S O P ' S M A R Y L A N D 



I am yours while I live, which I believe will be 
but some few minutes. 

If this Letter come to you before I' me dead, 
pray for me, but if I am gone, pray howsoever, 
for they can do me no harm if they come after me. 

Vale. 
Your real Friend, 
G. A. 

From Mary-Land, Dec. 13. Anno 



To my Parents. 

FRom the Grave or Receptacle of Death am I 
raised, and by an omnipotent power made 
capable of offering once more my Obedience (that 
lies close cabbined in the inwardmost apartment 
of my Soul) at the feet of your immutable Loves. 
My good Parents, God hath done marvellous 
things for me, far beyond my deserts, which at 
best were preposterously sinful, and unsuitable to 
the sacred will of an Almighty: But he is merciful, 
and his mercy endures for ever. When sinful man 
has by his Evils and Iniquities pull'd some pene- 
trating Judgment upon his head, and finding 
himself immediately not able to stand under so 
great a burthen as Gods smallest stroke of Justice, 
lowers the Top-gallant sayle of his Pride, and 
with an humble submissiveness prostrates himself 
before the Throne of his sacred Mercy, and like 



— Ill 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

those three Lepars that sate at the Gate of Sama- 
ria, resolved, If we yo into the City we shall perish, 
and if we stay here toe shall perish also: Therefore we 
will throw our selves into the hands of the Assyrians 
avid if we perish, we perish: This was just my condi- 
tion as to eternal state; my Soul was at a stand 
in this black storm of affliction: I view'd the 
World, and all that's pleasure in her, and found 
her altogether flashy, aiery, and full of notional 
pretensions, and not one firm place where a 
distressed Soul could hang his trust on. Next I 
viewed my self, and there I found, instead of good 
Works, lively Faith, and Charity, a most horrid 
neast of condemned Evils, bearing a supreme 
Prerogative over my internal faculties. You'l say 
here was little hope of rest in this extreme Eclipse, 
being in a desperate amaze to see my estate so 
deplorable : My better Angel urged me to deliver 
up my aggrievances to the Bench of Gods Mercy, 
the sure support of all distressed Souls: His 
Heavenly warning, and inward whispers of the 
good Spirit I was resolv'd to entertain, and not 
quench, and throw my self into the armes of a 
loving God, //' / perish, I perish. 'Tis beyond 
wonder to think of the love of God extended to 
sinful man, that in the deepest distresses or 
agonies of Affliction, when all other things prove 
rather hin<lerances then advantages, even at that 
time God is ready and steps forth to the support- 

— 112 — 



A L S O P ' S MARYLAND 

meiit of his drooping Spirit. Truly, about a fort- 
night before I wrote this Letter, two of our ablest 
Physicians rendered me up into the hands of God, 
the universal Doctor of the whole World, and 
subscribed with a silent acknowledgement. That 
all their Arts, screw' d up to the very Zenith of 
Scholastique perfection, were not capable of 
keeping me from the Grave at that time: But 
God, the great preserver of Soul and Body, said 
contrary to the expectation of humane reason, 
Arise^ take up thy bed and walk. 

I am now (through the help of my Maker) creep- 
ing up to my former strength and vigour, and 
every day I live, I hope I shall, through the assist- 
ance of divine Grace, climbe nearer and nearer 
to my eternal home. 

I have received this year three Letters from 
you, one by Capt. Conway Commander of the 
Wheat-Sheaf, the others by a Bristol Ship. Having 
no more at present to trouble you with, but 
expecting your promise, I remain as ever, 

Your dutiful Son, 

G. A. 

Mary- Land, Apr. 9. Anno 

I desire my hearty love may be remembered to 
my Brother, and the rest of my Kinred. 

Fims. 

— 113 — 



